Ignis
by Zarok63
Summary: The story follows the adventures of Ignis, a budding trainer from Cinnabar, as he sets off on his journey around Kanto hoping to become a pokémon master. However, before Ignis can even collect his starter it becomes clear that that path is not going to be an easy one...
1. Smoke and flame

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello and welcome to any brave soul who happens to stop by. This story aims to follow the typical Kanto pokemon adventure, catching pokemon and gathering gym badges but in a darker, more realistic way than the anime while still covering many of the same themes nonetheless. The protagonist is an original character of my own creation but many favourites such as Oak, gym leaders etc will make appearances. This is my first ever fanfic (or attempt at writing anything for that matter) so reviews with feedback telling me what you enjoyed/ didn't enjoy/ hope to see would be more than welcome. I will most certainly try to reply either privately or publicly in the next chapter to anyone good enough to review. Thanks once again for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.**

 **Chapter 1 – Smoke and Flame**

The last of the light faded across Pallet town, somewhere a Growlithe howled and a flock of pidgeys circled the forest returning to the nest for the night. Towards the edge of town was a small guesthouse, a window of which was illuminated with the flickering light of a television. Within the small but comfortable room sat a teenager currently embroiled in the Pokemon league match on the television where a fast Wartortle was making a Sandslash look very foolish. The teenager's name was Ignis. He had just turned fifteen, tall with sandy blonde hair and was about to embark upon his pokemon journey. Ignis was originally from Cinnabar but he had taken the boat to Pallet town as was the custom of new trainers so that he could receive his pokemon licence, and more importantly his starter pokemon from the fabled Professor Oak.

Ignis was no stranger to pokemon, he had been raised around them. His mother was a pokemon researcher at the Cinnabar research institute and his father was a very good trainer in his own right who had competed in the pokemon league in his heyday and was currently serving abroad in the Kanto army. Ignis had even worked for the famous Blaine's fire gym for a few months when he was younger, making coffee, cleaning up, feeding pokemon and running errands. That was of course before Blaine had decided one day with no warning to up and close the gym. Ignis found out later that the gym still existed high up in the volcano but the sharp falloff in challengers since then had meant that his little, part-time job summer job disappeared with the closing of the town's once famous gym.

However, the few short months that he had spent in the gym had convinced Ignis of what he'd long suspected, that there was no other calling he'd rather pursue than that of a pokemon trainer. Ignis had only met Blaine a handful of times, usually taking his orders from a supervisor or some other middle ranking trainer. The old man had seemed eccentric, if not unkind, and had a strange aura about him, the kind that one probably only attains by being a previous member of the Elite Four. His experience had meant that he soon started planning to start his own adventure, journeying around Kanto challenging the various gyms and ultimately qualifying for the Pokemon League. Although he could have undertook his journey earlier it was unusual for trainers to still go from a very young age. The dangers that journeying in the wild posed to the young and inexperienced was not to be underestimated. Sure, the few trainers that managed to make the Indigo league at a very young age garnered a lot of media attention but far less was heard of the young trainers who were killed or maimed by wild pokemon often in the first few weeks of their journeys when their teams were still very unexperienced and young. Ignis's parents had made him promise to wait until he was sixteen, a number which he'd eventually bargained down to fifteen. He could see the logic of his parent's arguments though, looking back on the last three years he accepted that twelve was far too young to undertake such a journey, indeed even the Pokemon League was making efforts to pass legislation to raise the starting trainer age.

Ignis rose from his seat at the end of the bed as the Wartortle finished the match blasting the Sandslash into a boulder with a powerful water gun. He walked over to the locker and poured himself some soda, rubbing his eyes as he did. He had arrived in Pallet earlier that morning, and finding that there wasn't much to do to kill time in Pallet, had spent the day binge watching the group stages of the Pokemon League. Not that he would have done anything else, no matter the amount of distractions Pallet had provided. The last match of the night was starting in a half an hour on the ice field so for now he settled in to watch the analysis of the previous match by the pundits.

He woke sometime early that morning with a jolt, afraid that he'd overslept but the darkness that the room was still plunged in soon allayed those fears. He looked down at his watch illuminated by the glow of the television's standby setting. The hands showed 05:38, Ignis rose out of the bed, fully awake now and berated himself for falling asleep during the end of what had actually been a very good match on the Ice field coming down to each players last pokemon, he resolved to look up the result later.

He had been thinking about this day for the longest time that now that it was finally here it felt surreal. It was unusual, if not unheard of for residents of Cinnabar to pursue pokemon training fulltime, as many of the youth quickly became involved in the thriving tourism industry that their family had been in before them, and their family before them and so on and so forth. That fact coupled with its small size meant that Cinnabar was usually the least represented region in the Pokemon league every year. However, the tourism industry lifestyle had never appealed to Ignis, perhaps due to his family's influence and certainly due to his short time in the gym where, in between his more mundane tasks he had watched countless challengers come and go and witnessed some epic matches.

Challengers usually came to Cinnabar quite late in their journey, when they had obtained at least 6 badges and as such Blaine was rarely required to hold back too much meaning the quality of those matches were generally excellent. The Pokemon League was run in such a way that the number of badges you held dictated how difficult your match would be meaning that prospective trainers always had increasingly difficult matches no matter the route they took. However, because of Pallet being the recommended starting area trainers usually proceeded north to Viridian and onto Pewter from there and continued the loop ending up in Cinnabar quite late in their journey. This at least was the system in theory, in practice some gym leaders were known for being far tougher than others with Blaine and Sabrina achieving a reputation for not bearing fools lightly whilst Giovanni had long since been accepted as the most ruthless of the gym leaders. Even so it was rare for a leader to use any of their main six pokemon, least of all their starter in a gym battle and these pokemon were usually reserved for defence of the city or for matches where the gym's honour was at stake.

Gym leaders were highly important figures and battling trainers for badges made up a very small amount of their actual work. As the most powerful trainers they were charged with the defence of their city and region at times of attack or disaster and others such as Koga even took the crime rates in the city quite personally. They also had a seat and a vote at the council which was made up of the eight official gym leaders and the elite four with the council headed by the champion Lance which made them highly influential figures. The experience Ignis had gotten from watching these high level matches in the Cinnabar gym had only cemented his view that pokemon training was in his future.

He quickly got dressed pulling on a pair of beige combat pants, a grey t-shirt and a black jacket. He laced up a pair of sturdy walking boots and headed downstairs. Despite it being only six in the morning the owner of the guesthouse, an elderly, kindly looking woman, was already up setting tables.

"Morning dear" the woman said without so much as looking up.

"Morning" Ignis replied, "You're up early".

"I always get up a little earlier when I have someone staying whose starting their journey as they rarely sleep at all and usually appreciate an early breakfast" smiled the old woman.

Ignis smiled and sat at the table as woman busied herself getting him coffee and fruit and then disappearing out to get him some eggs. Ignis forced himself to eat despite the borderline nausea he was feeling due to the building nerves in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had a long day ahead of him and would need his strength. The woman emerged from the kitchen and placed a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him.

"How are you feeling dear?" enquired the woman as she fussed around pouring more coffee.

"I'm ok I think" Ignis replied managing a wry smile.

"Of course you are!" exclaimed the woman, "enjoy the moment, this is one of the best days of your young life, make sure you live it! Have you decided on what starter pokemon you want?"

Ignis nodded forcing himself to swallow down some eggs. "I've decided on a Charmander".

"Of course you have" the woman said, still fussing around the room, "that'll be your Cinnabar roots, love your fire pokemon your lot do" she chuckled.

Ignis had never thought of it that way but now that it was pointed out to him he had to admit the woman was probably right. Fire pokemon had always held an attraction for him and his time in the gym watching Blaine's pokemon in action had only served to further the attraction that the fire type had for him.

"I suppose your right" he smiled

"Of course I am" the woman laughed, "Nonetheless Charmander is a very fine choice, very fine indeed. Have you met the Professor before?"

Ignis shook his head. He had seen the famous professor once when he came to Cinnabar on some research project or other but he hadn't had the courage to approach him and say hello, although many of his friends who had said the professor had been very friendly and encouraging.

"Well he's a lovely man, you'll have no problem at all with him, he'll get you off to a great start, the man's a great breeder aswell so you can be sure his starters will be in great condition, far better than anything you could catch around these parts".

The reality of the day he was about to embark on slowly began to sink in as the woman talked about the pokemon that was soon to be his. He eventually finished his food and rose from the table, thanking the woman for her hospitality telling her that he would return after he'd had been to Professor Oak's to fetch his backpack. He headed out of the guesthouse, painfully aware that he still had over two hours to kill before his 09:00 am meeting with Professor Oak but unable to just sit and wait he decided to go for a walk around pallet and maybe look at some of the pokemon on Oak's famous corral.

He headed up the deserted road that would bring him to the corral eventually getting to the brow of the hill where he would get his first glimpse of the ranch that he'd spent so many long afternoons dreaming of. He slowed his pace as he finally reached the top of the hill and found himself smiling despite his nerves. The smile was short-lived. There, about a mile in the distance was the corral he'd seen pictures of on so many websites, only unlike in all the pictures, several large plumes of dark smoke were rising, and one of the buildings towards the middle of the ranch was almost completely ablaze.

Ignis felt like all the air had been knocked out of him as he looked down upon the devastating scene like from something from a nightmare. One of the buildings was on fire, several others had no signs of flame coming from them but smoke billowed from windows.The yells and howls of various pokemon faintly filled the air and Ignis saw the outlines of several pokemon that appeared to be lying motionless on the ground near the building that was on fire.

Ignis stood motionless as he looked at the scene unfurling before him. Suddenly a loud bang snapped him out of his daze as a large orange blur shot by him in direction of the corral. The creature slowed down as it approached the corral and Ignis made out the outline of a large Dragonite with a man strapped to the saddle it wore on its back. He had never seen a Dragonite before, let alone witness the breath-taking speed he had just seen the Dragonite fly at. The creature was majestic with orange scales that glittered in the morning sun. The reflection of the fire in the scales served to make them look like they were fluid, constantly in motion. The small wings that Ignis could now make out on the Dragonite were completely unrepresentative of the speed that he had just witnessed. The Dragonite let its passenger off on the grass and then began to circle the fire hitting it with powerful water guns from all angles. The trainer on his back released two other pokemon that Ignis recognized as a Vaporeon and a Blastoise and they began adding their water guns to battle the massive blaze.

Ignis took off sprinting as fast as he could down the road in the direction of the buildings. He ran faster than he ever had ignoring the burning pain in his side from his non-stop sprint. He entered through the ranch's main gates, still about five minutes from the building that was ablaze. He turned sharply in the direction of the building putting on a fresh burst of speed but quickly stopped when he heard the cries of a pokemon from the field next to him. He looked across and saw a large orange and black ball of fur lying motionless in the field. Ignis started towards the pokemon cautiously breathing deeply from his run. He knew enough about pokemon to know to be cautious when approaching an injured or scared pokemon, even if that pokemon was not wild.

At first he thought that the pokemon was an Arcanine and he felt his trepidation grow but as he got closer he realised that it was actually three growlithes curled up close together. Ignis's heart dropped into his stomach as he realised that the grass around the pokemon was soaked in blood. As he approached closer one of the growlithes that was nuzzled into the others raised his head and growled. The pokemon was clearly in a bad state, a steady flow of blood coming from a long wound on his side and matting his fur but even so he raised himself as much as he could, eyes narrowed as he stood protectively over the other two.

Ignis came to a stop, raising his hands in a gesture to show he meant no harm. His eyes glanced to the other two growlithes and his stomach lurched as he realised they were clearly dead. He spoke gently but firmly as his father had taught him to do when dealing with scared or hostile pokemon. He also knew that if the pokemon had an owner it was often a good idea to call them by their nickname if they had one or to use their owner's name to show you at least knew their owner.

"I'm not going to hurt you" he started, "I'm here to help, I've come here to meet Professor Oak, you need to let me help you, I'll bring you to him, we need to stop your bleeding" he said softly.

The pokemon's ears visibly twitched with recognition at the mention of Oak's name and it stopped growling but he stayed positioned over his kin glancing towards them and then back to Ignis.

"You can't help them now, you need to let me look after you or you're going to faint" Ignis pleaded. "I'm going to come over to you now, please don't attack me" Ignis said in the same calm voice. He took off his jacket as he took slow steps towards the Growlithe who was clearly growing weaker by the second. "I'm going to use this to stop the bleeding, is it ok if I put this on your cut?" The dog pokemon continued to meet his eyes but the growling had ceased. Ignis knelt down and continued to look at the pokemon in the eye.

"This will probably hurt at first but I need to do it" said Ignis wishing he had a pokeball. This Growlithe was in urgent need of medical attention but the next best thing would be suspended animation which would ensure the pokemon's condition would not get worse until you could get it to a pokemon centre. However, Ignis didn't have one so basic first aid would have to do until he could get the Growlithe to Professor Oak. He held the jacket into the cut on the growlithes body; the pokemon yelped but made no move attack him. "I'm going to pick you up now and get you to the Professor, ok?"

The Growlithe gave him no affirmation but didn't object when Ignis scooped the dog up with both arms and headed towards the buildings as quickly as the weight of his newly acquired weight would allow. The pressure that Ignis was applying had stopped most of the bleeding but the Growlithe was clearly in a bad way. Even the weakest of pokemon can take a lot more punishment than a human and survive it so Ignis shuddered to think what had attacked the family of Growlithe to cause such injuries.

Ignis approached the building which had now been completely extinguished feeling exhausted from his run and carrying the injured pokemon. He could hear sirens in the distance as he walked the last few steps. Ignis could see the Dragonite's passenger as he now recognized as Professor Oak walking slowly towards him. He wore a lot travelling cloak in place of his usual white lab coat which was burned in several places and smoke stained. His face was covered with ash and his eyes were red from the smoke. Even so the Professor was an impressive sight; he had an aura that Ignis had only ever associated with Blaine. The Professor came to a stop a few metres from him and put his hand to his belt reaching for a pokeball.

"Stop now, identify yourself!" he shouted in a powerful voice, completely different from the usual calm soft voice that Ignis knew from watching interviews.

"Ignis of Cinnabar sir" he said startled by the hostile reception but he supposed he should have expected it, something awful had clearly happened at the corral and here he stood a stranger, two hours before the Professor had expected him.

The Professor eased the moment he heard the name and removed his hand from his belt. "Ignis, I'm sorry, I'm a bit jumpy after this morning". His gaze shifted to the pokemon in Ignis's arms. "Oh God, what's happened to you" he said with a sorrowful voice addressing the pokemon directly.

"He's bleeding badly Professor, we need to get him to a pokemon centre" Ignis offered, lifting his coat just enough to show the massive, deep gash in the Growlithes side.

The Professor stared at the wound for a second before regaining his composure and reaching back to his belt. "I'm going to have to return him Ignis" said the Professor calmly releasing the beam from a pokeball which withdrew the Growlithe into the ball. "He'll be safe in there until I can get him some further attention".

"Thank you for your help Ignis" said the Professor eyes glancing around constantly surveying the scene around him. "Wait here and I'll return to you as quickly as I can" and with that he turned and ran in the direction of the north side of the ranch showing remarkable speed for a man of his age.

Ignis couldn't believe what was happening. He had been looking forward to this day for years, slowly building up to the moment only for it to start in this way. The corral looked like something out of a disaster film, he couldn't begin to think what had happened. Fires smouldered in the ruins of the building, many pokemon were injured although thankfully most seemed to have escaped the fate of the other two growlithes he had seen at the entrance. They had seemed very young, no more than pups and Ignis tasted the bile rise in his throat as he thought about the sight of their bloodied, limp bodies. The sirens were loud now and Ignis turned around to see two fire engines pull into the compound escorted by a police motorbike.

A firefighter jumped downed from the lead engine quickly followed by a team of squirtle and they set about dampening down any areas that were still smouldering. The police officer on the bike approached Ignis taking off his helmet as he walked over.

"What's happened here?" he asked looking around at the scene of devastation.

"I don't know, I only got it about twenty minutes before you" Ignis replied, still quite shell-shocked at the events. "It was burning quite badly when I got here but the Professor managed to use some of his pokemon to extinguish the worst of it".

"The professor is here?" asked the officer with surprise. "He rang us from Indigo Plateau to say his security and fire alarms were going off and that he was on his way back but I never thought he'd get here before us".

"He came on his Dragonite" Ignis offered.

"I see" the officer whispered with a look of understanding, "never seen anything fly like that dragon of his can, didn't know he had it with him, it usually remains on the ranch".

The officer left him and walked over to the other firefighter from the second truck and started talking to her, taking pictures as they walked around the ranch quietly conversing. The scene had become quite busy now that the emergency services had started arriving and Ignis noticed two ambulances, one a slightly bigger, specialised ambulance from the pokemon centre specifically designed for treating pokemon in the field pull into the compound with blue and red lights flashing. Ignis stood quietly in the middle of the organised chaos as the emergency services went about their work feeling helpless. He was still clutching his jacket, which was now destroyed and his hands were stained with the dark red blood of the young Growlithe. Now that the adrenaline had started the leave him he began to notice how cold he was standing in his t-shirt in the morning air.

After a few minutes had passed a paramedic approached him and led him to the back of the ambulance and put a blanket around him. He took it as a good sign that there didn't seem to be any other patients besides himself and a young researcher who was being treated behind him for smoke inhalation. He supposed there hadn't been many staff around in the early hours of the morning, or at least he hoped there hadn't been. He watched the goings on from his perch at the back of the ambulance. The firefighters were almost finished with their work, the professor's pokemon had done the most of it for them but the pokemon centre ambulance was certainly under pressure with two medics and a nurse Joy working tirelessly to heal injured pokemon.

Ignis wasn't sure how long he sat there, lost in the daze of the morning's events. He thought maybe for about a half an hour before his thoughts were interrupted by Professor Oak emerging back into his view speaking seriously with the police officer from earlier. The professor looked around and met Ignis's eyes. He smiled and made a beeline towards him.

"Ignis, my friend, I'm sorry I was so blunt with you earlier, it's been a hell of a morning" said the professor as he walked the last few steps towards him and shook Ignis's hand warmly. "I'm sure you'll be very pleased to know that the little Growlithe you saved is going to be just fine" he said smiling brightly. Ignis felt some of the weight that he didn't know he'd been carrying lift as he heard the professor's words.

"That's great news" Ignis said letting his relief visibly show.

"Yes, and all thanks to you Ignis m'boy, although I must say that I'm devastated by the loss of the other two Growlithe" said the professor heavily and suddenly the professor seemed to show his age, looking very weary indeed. Ignis winced as the picture of the two dead pokemon made its way to the forefront of his mind; it was an image he knew he would never forget until the day he died.

"It appears that my Arcanine chased after the people who did this and the Growlithe, young and all as they are, followed her and also entered the fray. They are a fiercely loyal pokemon and very protective of their territory but at their young age meant they didn't stand much of a chance" said the professor sadly.

Ignis let the weight of the professors words wash over him. Up to now he had assumed the fire had maybe been caused accidently by some kind of malfunctioning lab equipment. At worst he had thought that a powerful wild pokemon had attacked the lab but the fact that this had been an orchestrated attack that resulted in the burning down of one of Professor Oak's buildings and the death of two pokemon was incomprehensible to him.

"Professor, what exactly happened here?" said Ignis looking around the half burnt building and smouldering landscape.

"Were not completely sure ourselves yet if I'm being honest with you and what we do know, or what we're guessing at makes for quite a long story, however the short version is simple; Team Rocket".

Team Rocket, Ignis had heard of the criminal organisation before but knew very little about them except for what he heard on the news which mostly consisted of reports of stealing rare pokemon and other acts of deviance and criminality. From what he knew they operated largely underground never doing enough to garner large amounts of attention from the league or other law enforcement, until now.

"I didn't think they'd try something like this" he said to the Professor. "I always thought of them as small time thugs".

"As did we Ignis, as did we. As it stands they've managed to steal several pokemon and lots of different equipment but I'm not sure if that was ultimately their goal. I think that their aim was to make something of a statement and they've certainly managed that. It also raises some serious concerns about where they are getting their information from. Bold and all as it seems they have become I seriously doubt they would try anything like this if either myself or Draco had been here" he said inclining his head towards his massive Dragonite which was sitting on the lawn watching everything carefully.

"Not a lot of people would have known that we were gone which means that Team Rocket's influence appears to reach quite high up in the League which is certainly very worrying indeed" he said sighing, his eyes suddenly flicked up to the sky over Ignis's shoulder. "Speaking of the League" he whispered to himself.

Ignis craned his neck to look around the side of the ambulance and into the sky where a large black and grey helicopter was fast approaching the compound. It came to a hover over the adjacent field and touched down. Ignis noticed the league emblem emblazoned on the side of the large helicopter. The rotors slowly came to a stop and a large motorising door open at the side producing a small staircase down to the field. A tall, good looking woman with dark red hair and glasses emerged from the helicopter. She wore knee-high leather boots, black pants, a white blouse and a long blue coat. Ignis recognized her straight away. How could he not, he'd watched her take on countless challengers and champions at the end of the annual Pokemon League competitions; Lorelei.

The Elite Four member and famous Ice-type specialist walked briskly over, vaulting a wooden fence with ease and heading directly to Professor Oak.

"I came as soon as I heard" she said in a serious but gentle voice.

"It is good to see you Lorelei, I'm not sure if there's anything you can do but you are still a most welcome sight".

"I know, I'm sorry this happened especially when you were away by my request, I feel very guilty, we have much to talk about, the implications of this attack are...unsettling".

"That is to say the least" said the Professor.

Ignis stood watching the two legends conversing infront of him in complete awe, this day just kept getting stranger and stranger. The Professor suddenly glanced at him and stopped mid-sentence.

"Ignis! I'm sorry, you must think me so rude, This is Elite Four Lorelei, Lorelei this is Ignis, he rescued one of my pokemon after the attack, his courage and quick-thinking undoubtedly saved its life". Ignis felt himself blush at the praise from the revered Professor.

"Please to meet you Elite Lorelei".

"Please, there's no need for titles" said Lorelei with a kind smile, "any friend of Oak is a friend of mine". "Are you a trainer Ignis?" she asked surveying him with interst.

"I…well, I was going to be..." Ignis trailed off looking at Professor Oak.

"Ignis was due to start his journey today but the morning's events have put quite a dampener on that to say the least" offered Professor Oak. "Not to worry though, we'll soon have you on your way if you're still willing, just give me a few hours to sort this mess out and I can get you a pokedex and a …well, we'll figure something out" said the Professor ending his sentence quite abruptly and looking quite awkward. Ignis was reminded for the second time today of the Professor's age as the elderly professor trailed off lost in thought. " I must discuss some matters with Lorelei now Ignis, I must ask you to be patient once more I'm afraid, go back to your guesthouse, freshen up, have soon food and a rest. Tell Mrs Falson to charge any extra expenses you incur to my account and return here at midday" said the Professor.

Ignis nodded and the Professor and Lorelei turned and headed towards the large building. that had been untouched in the morning's fire talking in hushed tones as the Professor pointed out various things as they walked . Lorelei turned and gave him a quick wave before she got too far, "I hope to see you again someday" she smiled, "best of luck with your journey, I remember starting mine like it was yesterday".

Ignis stood there a few moments longer trying to digest what had just happened. He smiled despite everything. First day as a pokemon trainer and he had already met a member of the Elite Four, that was something that not even some of the most experienced trainers could boast. He finally turned and headed back up to the guesthouse feeling at least a few years older than he had been when he arrived.

Ignis found himself walking the stretch of road between the guesthouse and corral for the third time that day. He had returned to the guesthouse pokemonless, weary and blood-stained. To her eternal credit Mrs Falson didn't so much as question him despite the shocked look she'd given him when he walked back in. He had showered and laid down for a while pondering the morning events for a few hours, completely unable to sleep despite his early morning. The grim reality of pokemon training had been really brought home to him this morning. Pokemon could die. Pokemon would die. Granted it was unusual and a pokemon would have to take an awful amount of damage for their injuries to become life-threatening but his youthful thoughts about pokemon as invincible creatures of spectacular power and resilience had been eliminated. He felt a new weight of responsibility if he was to be a trainer. The advances in technology such as pokeballs keeping pokemon in complete suspended animation until their wounds could be tended to and in particular the massive advances in medicine in the last decade that had meant that even the most critical of injuries could be healed in a manner of hours had only furthered the illusion of invincibility. That illusion was completely shattered now as he thought back to the two young Growlithe lying motionless on the blood soaked grass.

He walked up to the entrance of the corral, the ambulances and fire engines were gone, as was the helicopter but the police officer remained and much of the corral had been cordoned off with police tape. Fortunately the officer recognized him from early and let him through without him having to validate who he was and he headed to the main building that the Professor and Lorelei had headed to earlier.

He went in through the front door which opened out into a reception area. A young man in a white lab coat was sitting behind a desk typing furiously while he read from a big black file. He had light brown hair and wore glasses that were too big for his face. He looked up when he heard the door close behind Ignis.

"Ignis I presume?" he said coming out from behind the desk and extended his hand.

"Yes I am" he replied shaking the man's hand.

"Very good were all here then, Ignis this is River" said the researcher turning to another boy about Ignis's age sitting on a chair in the room. The boy rose when he heard his name and extended a hand.

"Hey, howya doing Iggy" said the boy looking him up and down as if to size him up. Ignis scowled at the use of the nickname, only his mother called him Iggy but he let it go as at that moment the doors behind them opened and Professor Oak walked through the doors.

"Ah I see you've met each other already" said Oak beaming around the room. "Excellent, excellent, well come on through we have much to discuss".

He led them through to a laboratory room and sat them at a table.

"Now I know your aware of the situation we had here this morning and I know that my assistant has filled you in River. The bad news is that during this morning attack the three starter pokemon that I had arranged to be waiting in the lab across the compound for you were stolen". Ignis's heart dropped to his stomach as he heard the news, he noticed the professor seemed very upset by it and his voice had gone to almost a whisper almost as if he couldn't bear to hear himself say it.

"What the hell are we meant to do now!" River snapped, I've travelled from Fuchsia city to come here and receive my starter pokemon!"

"The good news however" said Professor Oak ignoring the outburst although his frown increased a little, "is that the lagoon that is part of this corral was unaffected by this morning's events and therefore I still have quite a few squirtles available. They're not quite as well trained as the one I had ready but they are still of very good breeding and will make excellent partners for budding trainers. Would this be satisfactory as a solution to the ugly situation we find ourselves faced with?"

"Hell yeah it will, I was gonna pick a Squirtle anyway, they're clearly the best choice" said River, all previous fury seemingly forgotten. This seemed to cheer Oak up a good bit but he turned and looked at Ignis.

"And you Ignis, would you be ok with that?" he said with a look of concern.

"Sure professor, a squirtle would be great" he said but failing to muster any real enthusiasm. He was very glad to be getting any pokemon after the news he'd just got and River was right, many people did rate Squirtle as the best of the three starters but he didn't realise how much he'd had his heart set up a Charmander until this very moment, now a Squirtle just didn't seem like a good fit for him.

Something about his expression must have given the game away as the Professor gave him a quizzical look and asked "What pokemon had you intended to choose?"

"Well I was going to pick a Charmander but really professor, a Squirtle would be just great, thank you so much" he reiterated trying not to come across as ungrateful.

"Hmm..a Charmander, that'll be the Cinnabar in you" said the professor quietly.

"So I've been told" said Ignis with a wry smile remembering the guesthouse owner's remarks from earlier.

"Hmm well I'm afraid I won't be able to get my hands on a Charmander for at least a few weeks and then by the time its adequately trained to be a starter it may be another month" said the professor. "I assume that would be too long a wait?...I'll take that as a yes" he said quickly with a laugh noting Ignis's crestfallen expression. "Well there is perhaps one final solution" he said with a glint in his eye. "Let me just set River up with his pokedex and see him on his way and we can take a short walk" said the Professor mysteriously.

Ignis just nodded at the Professor's vagueness and sat there while the Professor showed River through his pokedex and then left with him to go fetch his new squirtle from the lagoon.

He returned a short time later alone and looked at Ignis with a smile. "Let's take a walk Ignis, I want to show you something" said the Professor beckoning Ignis to follow him. They walked out a side door and onto the ranch where some Ponyta were feeding. Ignis stood looking at the flames dance on the back of the horse pokemon before following the professor across the field. They eventually got to a large wooden building near the edge of the corral which was backed onto the forest which made up the boundary of the corral. They entered the building which had quite a high ceiling and straw all over the floor.

"These are the kennels" said Professor Oak with the same glint in his eye. He walked over to one of the pens and opened it and there, lying on some bedding with its ears perked up and its tongue wagging was the same Growlithe that Ignis had saved hours earlier. "I thought ye should meet under more pleasant circumstances said the professor with a laugh, his youth seemed to return to his face when he laughed and Ignis found it hard to distinguish him from the worried old man he'd witnessed earlier. The Growlithe rose up from the bedding and bounded over in their direction before jumping up to Ignis and placing its two front paws on the teenagers chest and licking him madly.

"I think he remembers me" said Ignis laughing and rubbing the Growlithe behind the ears. He couldn't believe the difference between the pokemon he'd carried earlier and the one that was infront of him now. Modern medicine could achieve nearly anything it seemed.

"He most certainly does" the professor said. "Growlithe are an incredibly loyal pokemon, it can take a while to earn their trust and friendship but once you've done that they'll be a friend for life"

Ignis laughed as the pokemon continued to jump up and down pawing and licking him "Well I seem to have gotten that much it seems".

"Yes indeed and now it's up to you to decide if you'd like it for life" said the professor looking Ignis in the eyes and smiling.

Ignis stopped laughing, the implications of what the professor had just said coming through.

"You mean…."

"Yes, I would like you to have this Growlithe as your starter. I normally would never recommend a Growlithe as a starter because it can take so long to earn their loyalty but in your case that doesn't appear to be an issue".

"Wow, really?" Ignis replied completely in awe.

"Absolutely, if you want him" laughed the professor. "If you'd prefer a Squirtle we can go straight over to the lagoon and get one but I know you had your heart set on a fire pokemon and you'd be hard pressed to start your journey with a stronger bond between trainer and pokemon so if you want him he's yours, you've most certainly earned it" said the professor.

Ignis couldn't believe his ears. This fitted in exactly the way that the Squirtle hadn't, it felt right. Growlithe were incredibly rare in the wild and were extremely expensive even if you could find a breeder willing to sell.

"Whatcha reckon Growlithe? Wanna come on my journey with me" said Ignis looking the Growlithe straight in its big brown eyes in the same way he had during those few tense moments a few hours earlier. The Growlithe barked wildly and jumped around the compound and back up on Ignis's chest slobbering all over him.

"I think that's a yes" said the professor, "lets head back to the lab, I can set you up with pokeballs and a pokedex and you can finally be on your way"

Together they walked back to the lab, Growlithe bounding out infront of them and running back and forth at tremendous speed. For the first time all day Ignis felt the knot in his stomach loosen and he felt the sense of nerves and trepidation turn to excitement.


	2. Biting the dust

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello all, many thanks to anyone who read the first chapter and particularly to anyone who took the time to review. I'm very glad that you're continuing to read on. Please do review, whether you're a first time reader or a former one back to read chapter two. I really do value the feedback and I do respond to all messages (even the critical ones). I'm also open to suggestions on what way you'd like to see the story go or what you'd like to see. This chapter also has my first battle sequence in it so I'd be particularly interested to hear what you think of it. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 2 – Biting the dust**

Ignis walked out the gates of the Professor's ranch with his new Growlithe trotting alongside him. His new pokemon's tongue wagging happily, ears perked up as the trainer and pokemon embarked upon the first steps of their adventure. Growlithe didn't seem to mind being in his pokeball but the Professor had warned him that as his Growlithe was still very young he would need lots of exercise to help its development. The Growlithe was also quite inexperienced only knowing basic moves such as bite and growl but Professor Oak said that he expected the young pokemon to develop and grow quite a lot even in the coming weeks especially with the increased training.

The Professor had issued Ignis with his pokedex which served as his official I.D, a computer with encyclopaedic information on all pokemon and also a device which could be used to access the internet and all kind of useful apps. The professor had also issued him with six pokeballs including Growlithe's own ball which were currently strapped to his custom made belt.

As the pair headed down Route 1 Ignis found himself reflecting on the morning's events. The day had taken several twists and turns but had somehow managed to work out quite well. He had received his very own growlithe which was a pokemon he had only ever dreamed of owning. He had also had formed quite a good relationship with Professor Oak who had given him his private phone number before he left and he had even gotten to meet Elite Lorelei even if it only had been for a moment. Of course those had been the highs thought Ignis, there had also been lows, his mind jumping unbidden to the image of the two dead growlithe. His own Growlithe had left his side as they'd been heading to the gate and walked solemnly to the spot where his brothers had died hours earlier. Their bodies had been removed but his growlithe had sat there silently for a few moments, eyes glancing around the field before letting out a loud howl to the sky and trudging back to Ignis downheartedly. Ignis had spent a few moments sitting with him and rubbing his ears while the pokemon rested his head on the teenagers lap. After a few minutes of the two of them sitting there quietly Growlithe had risen up, licked Ignis and looked down towards the gate as if to indicate he wanted to continue.

Ignis dragged himself from his thoughts and watched his pokemon who bounded out ahead of him, running across fields, back and forth but never going too far from his trainer. Ignis had stopped near a tree as they began their journey and used his knife to cut a branch which he had fashioned into a makeshift staff which would be useful should they encounter any wild Spearow or Rattatas. It wouldn't be of much help should they encounter anything bigger but his pokedex had informed him as they set off that those pokemon along with the more docile pidgey were the most frequently seen along Route 1.

The pair walked down the road for nearly an hour without any incident. The grasslands around them quickly grew wilder as they left the protection of the Pallet suburbs and the trees that had been sparse grew more and more common as they approached an area of dense woodland. Ignis killed the time by sticking treats at the top of his staff and making Growlithe jump higher and higher to get at them. This was a good workout for the pokemon and encouraged it to use some of the muscles that it would later rely on in battle while also serving as some important bonding time for the pair. Ignis was pleasantly surprised at just how high the young growlithe could leap to get at the treat. The dog was currently eating his fourth one and eyeing Ignis's backpack where he kept the treats with interest when his whole demeanour suddenly changed. His ears picked up, his back arched and he growled deeply, eyes trained on the long grass to his right.

"What is it boy," whispered Ignis gripping his staff firmly.

Suddenly the grass rustled and a large rattata burst out of the undergrowth running across the path, hissing madly but seemingly ignoring Ignis and his companion. This was it thought Ignis, his adrenaline started to pump as his looked at the large rodent that sported teeth that could cut through bone frothing madly from the mouth. This, it seemed, would be his first pokemon battle. He was confident Growlithe could take this rattata, vicious and all as it looked and then he would capture his first wild pokemon he thought, hand already moving to grasp an empty pokeball on his belt. Suddenly, before Ignis could give a command or Growlithe could make a move in its direction, a large burst of water sped out of the bushes smashing straight into the rattata's head. The rattata was spun around by the blast and continued to spin slowly around in circles, clearly dizzied from the direct impact.

Ignis spun around to see a squirtle emerge at high speed from the long grass where the rattata had come from.

"Squirtle!" it exclaimed putting on an extra burst of speed and tackling into the dizzied creature sending it crashing into the ground.

A moment later a pokeball whirred through the air smashing into the side of the fallen rattata before opening and sucking the pokemon inside. It wiggled once before a dinging noise signalled the pokemon had been safely captured.

Ignis turned around to see River emerging from the long grass that the squirtle had come from, beads of sweat trickling down his brow from chasing after the two pokemon.

"Another one bites the dust Iggy boy!" said the teenager walking forward and picking up the pokeball. Ignis scowled at the continued use of the nickname but decided to make an effort to be friendly nonetheless.

"Ya good battle River," he said with a smile.

"Not so much a battle as a hunt," replied the boy wiping his forehead with a towel he had taken from his backpack. "Little shit tried to make a run for it," he said with a laugh. His eyes flicked from Ignis to the Growlithe at his side eyeing him and his Squirtle suspiciously.

"Damn Iggy, where ju manage to catch a Growlithe, I didn't know there were any around here".

"I didn't" replied Ignis, happy to see the other trainers obvious jealousy. "Professor Oak gave him to me as a starter".

"Oak gave you a Growlithe as your starter?" the boy replied amazed. "Oak gave you a pup from his own Arcanine? The same Arcanine that was in his top six when he was still competing" said the boy incredulously.

Ignis had never thought of it that way. The sudden weight of the Professor's kindness started to dawn on him. Breeding was important in all pokemon but Growlithe in particular benefitted greatly from their parents attributes. Oak's Arcanine was something of a legend and he remembered his Dad's stories about watching Oak compete with Dragonite, Arcanine, Alakazam and Blastoise amongst others. "He could've been champion" his Dad would always say. He should've been the Lance for my generation but he didn't care for power, choosing instead to retire and concentrate on research". Now that he thought about it that made his Growlithe particularly special and he swelled with pride.

"He did" replied Ignis enjoying the other boy's disbelief.

"Who the hell are you to him" the boy said bitterly.

"No one" said Ignis simply "I saved this growlithe from bleeding to death after the fire so Oak thought I should have him".

The other boy stared at him for a long moment forehead creased as he took in and processed everything that Ignis told him while staring at Growlithe.

"Right, let's have a battle!" he suddenly snapped, the words almost bursting from his mouth as he stepped back putting space between them. "We won't be long seeing how special this dog of yours is".

"Squirtle!" offered his pokemon standing up straight next to his trainer. Growlithe growled deeply noticing the change in atmosphere between the two trainers but didn't move so much as a muscle.

"No can do" said Ignis surprised at the trainer's sudden outburst. "You know the rules".

"What bloody rules?!" shouted River clearly getting more irritable by the second.

"Well firstly you're never meant to use your last pokemon to battle a trainer in the wild, you're last is meant to be used for defence against wild pokemon only. Secondly, neither of us have registered officially for the League yet so it's illegal for us to battle" said Ignis calmly.

"You still only have the one!" replied River, "I'm up to three already and to hell with the rules" he added.

Ignis looked from his Growlithe to the Squirtle. The Squirtle was far more developed than his young pup and it would have a type advantage, what's more if a Ranger came by and asked for their I.D they'd be in real trouble. Having said all that River was really getting on his nerves and he'd love to take him down a peg or two.

"I tell you what," said River. "When I win, I'll wait with you until your Growlithe's recovered. That way I can protect you from all the big bad wild pokemon," he said mockingly.

"If you win," said Ignis stressing the first word.

"That's the spirit!" scoffed the other boy, "Right here, one on one" he said moving back a few spaces".

His growlithe stepped forward infront of him before he even had to order him still growling deeply. He found his own hand clenched tightly in a fist. He'd show this stuck up idiot. "Ok let's go," he finally said gritting his teeth.

"Ready," said River… "Go Squirtle! Tackle!"

Squirtle charged quickly towards his Growlithe, shoulder lowered ready to smash into the Growlithe's jaw.

"Dodge it!" Ignis shouted quickly.

Growlithe moved aside at a remarkable speed just as Squirtle was about to make contact. Ignis smiled, Squirtle might have the type advantage but Growlithe was much quicker, he could use that.

"Bite Growlithe!" shouted Ignis and his pokemon quickly whirred around in mid-air and sprang on the turtle pokemon as its momentum carried it past him, biting down fiercely on the Squirtle's arm.

"Squirtle!" the pokemon screeched in pain as the growlithe tore into its arm and a small amount of blood ran out of the wound. It withdrew its arm into its protective shell with a yelp opening up the cut further as its arm pulled across the sharp teeth on the way back into the safety of its shell. Growlithe jumped back growling madly, some of the Squirtle's blood dripping from its maw. The squirtle popped tentatively out of its shell and sprang backwards with a large leap panting heavily but succeeding in leaving a good amount of space between the two pokemon.

"Water Gun!" came the shout from behind him. The squirtle recovered and quickly shot a powerful burst of water at the dog pokemon. Growlithe reacted just a second too slowly dodging the worst of the attack but the water gun glanced of its hind legs knocking him over. Growlithe yelped as it was flung to the ground but jumped up almost as quickly as it had hit it, eyes locked on the Squirtle, who was still bleeding quite badly from the arm, staring at it with determination.

"Tackle Growlithe!" shouted Ignis noticing the Water pokemon tiring and his Growlithe instantly put on a spurt of speed incomparable to his usual playful bounding around the fields and rushed towards the squirtle. The squirtle didn't anticipate the massive burst of speed, it fired a water gun in Growlithe's direction but the pokemon was already moving and the jet connected with nothing more than the fresh air where the dog pokemon had been a moment before. Growlithe closed the gap between the two before Squirtle had time to fire again connecting with him squarely in the chest knocking him backward a good distance with a loud bang but Squirtle withdrew in mid-air saving it from much of the landing damage.

"Quickly Growlithe, rush it again and bite!" roared Ignis sensing victory

"Water gun!" shouted River desperately as the Growlithe closed in fast.

The bruised and bleeding Squirtle recovered its composure just in time, letting loose a powerful jet of water. The water gun hit the Growlithe at point blank range right into its mouth which had opened wide to bite down once again on the injured turtle pokemon. Growlithe was blown back head over heels from the blow and hit the floor coughing and struggling to breathe, lungs half drowned from the direct water gun. It rose up from the ground dazed just as the Squirtle smashed into its head, blindsiding him with a powerful tackle attack. Growlithe hit the ground hard and a cloud of dust from the dry ground erupted around his unmoving body.

"Squirtle," the squirtle declared weakly with a note of finality but with far less smugness than it had portrayed before the match. It was breathing heavily and cradling its bleeding arm before a beam of light signalled River returning it to the pokeball.

"Good but not good enough," River said quietly, although even he seemed taken back by how close he'd been to losing and how much damage his Squirtle had taken. He quickly clipped Squirtle's pokeball onto his belt. "I guess good breeding isn't everything," he said with a sneer before turning and walking up the road towards Viridian before Ignis could even reply, all thoughts of their agreement seemingly forgotten.

Ignis smarted at his remarks. He knew he'd let River goad him into a battle that he'd have been extremely disadvantaged in but the fact remained that the battle had been far closer than it should have been given the type and development levels of the two pokemon. He knelt down next to his Growlithe who was just regaining consciousness.

"You did really great buddy," he said, "Hold still there while I spray you with some of this potion," said Ignis pulling a small green bottle from his backpack. He was glad now that his mother had given him some as a parting gift before he left. He sprayed it over the large lump on the pokemon's head and the swelling immediately looked less red and angry. It was no substitute for a pokemon centre but it would have to do until he got to one. "I'm going to return you so that you can have a rest," he said taking out his pokeball. Growlithe looked at him with sad eyes, still unable to rise from the ground.

"You've nothing to feel bad about," said Ignis firmly. "That Squirtle was really strong and had a type advantage on you, don't worry we'll get stronger too soon enough," he said. Growlithe licked him weakly in acknowledgment and Ignis returned him into his pokeball still angry that River had left him defenceless in the wild.

He took out his pokedex and checked for notifications of wild or dangerous pokemon sighted by locals or other trainers. There were none although it did say that there was a ranger in the area and Ignis was glad that he hadn't come across their battle berating himself once again for his foolishness. There was no need to put in a request for assistance from the ranger just yet as he was in no immediate danger but he certainly had no wish to be out on the road when it got dark. He picked up his staff and set off with at a new determined speed.

He walked for about another three hours keeping up a good pace despite the heat of the day. He stuck closely to the path, well aware that he probably should have returned to Pallet but he couldn't deal with having to give up on his first day. If he could just get to Viridian like he had always planned then the day would still have been a success. Twice he stopped after hearing something in the forest around him, looking anxiously from tree to tree, knuckles turning white from the grip on this makeshift staff, heart pounding so hard he worried that every pokemon in a mile radius would be able to hear it but each time silence returned to the forest and Ignis gingerly set off again. He had relished the thought of journeying in the wild looking for pokemon but with his Growlithe still recovering and nightfall not too long away Ignis found himself wanting nothing more than to see the city lights and the safety of civilisation.

He finally got his wish when the trees started to thin and the tallest of Viridian's buildings became visible way off in the distance. Ignis felt himself release some of the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding at the sight of the far-off skyscrapers. Relief slowly crept over him. He doubted it was more than an hour away at this stage so despite his fears he should make it before dark. The trees were really starting to thin out now opening into the rocky open terrain at the feet of some small mountains. The path ahead veered off to the left which would point him straight at Viridian.

Ignis bolstered his speed, feeling renewed by the sight of his destination and the promise of safety. He was just rounding the corner when suddenly there was a deafening smash that cut through the silence of the forest. Ignis froze the moment he heard it but he was just too late. There in the clearing, standing infront of a boulder it had just turned to rubble and dust, was a graveller.

Ignis locked eyes with the large pokemon, body frozen in fear. Ignis had seen a couple of gravellers before, all of them in Blaine's gym, and he knew that this one was quite small for its species. Nevertheless that gave him little comfort as he also knew this beast could tear his arms from their sockets as easily as fire could cut through ice.

Ignis considered his options, quickly concluding that he had none. He couldn't outrun the large pokemon and he certainly couldn't fight it. He let his staff drop to the ground suddenly realising how flimsy his only form of protection was. He started to back away slowly hoping the rock pokemon would lose interest in him when suddenly another noise, this time from behind him, broke the silence.

"I see you've met my graveller," a voice said.

Ignis spun around so quickly that he fell to the ground scraping the palms of his hands off the rough ground.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," said the voice and Ignis felt a strong arm help him up. He rose slowly rubbing the dust from his eyes.

Standing infront of him was a tall young man. Ignis guessed maybe eighteen or nineteen years old, with short black hair, pale skin and blue eyes, a small amount of stubble shadowed his young face. He looked at Ignis with concern, "you ok buddy?"

"I'm ok," replied Ignis with relief. He wasn't sure his heart could take any more of this day's surprises. His eyes flicked to the graveller that was regarding him with an amused expression.

"Don't worry about him," the stranger offered. "He's harmless really," he said with a smile. Ignis found that particularly hard to believe as he looked at the remnants of what must have been a sizeable boulder.

"I'm Peter," the young man offered extending his hand. "I really am so sorry for frightening you. What has you out on the road so late? Are you heading to Viridian?"

Ignis nodded, still unable to take his eyes off the graveller.

Peter laughed unclipping a pokeball from his belt. "Return Graveller," he said releasing a beam of light from the ball that sucked in the large rock type. "Graveller only evolved from a geodude last week so I came here to train some new moves and get it used to its new form," said Peter beaming at the pokeball in his hand. "It's getting late though so I'd better be getting back to the city; we can walk together if you like?"

Ignis accepted the offer gladly. He felt a lot of the tension disappear now that the Graveller had been returned. He wouldn't normally be so frightened by the sight of the pokemon but he'd been so on edge all the way through the forest coming face to face with the large rock pokemon before he'd seen its trainer had turned his blood cold.

The pair set off toward Viridian exchanging stories and getting to know eachother as they walked. Peter was eighteen years old, a trainer from Pewter city who was in the area training and preparing to go on his own journey. His work had kept him from undertaking it until now but when his Geodude had evolved two weeks ago Peter had taken it as a sign that it was time. He had handed in his months' notice the day after the evolution and was currently in Viridian on an errand for his work. He had to return to Pewter tomorrow but planned to embark on his own adventure the moment he had seen out the last day of his notice. They talked about Ignis's short time at Blaine's gym which seemed to interest the young man greatly. Ignis also filled Peter in on the morning's events and he saw the concern on the older boy's face as he recounted the tale.

"Team Rocket grow bolder by the day," he stated with a worried expression. "Only last week they broke into the Pewter city museum ... not many people know that," he added hastily.

They soon came to the city, their conversation providing a welcome distraction from Ignis's growing exhaustion. Ignis couldn't help but like Pete. He spoke about pokemon with the same enthusiasm that Ignis held for them and was always smiling and laughing and as such the hour's walk seemed to pass very quickly.

"You'll want to head to the pokemon centre to register and have your growlithe seen to," said Peter as they came to the heart of the large city. "I've a few things to be doing but I'm staying at the Centre too so if I don't see you tonight I'll see you for breakfast tomorrow maybe?" Ignis happily agreed to this suggestion, keen to see his new friend and headed in the direction of the large pokemon centre.

Viridian was quite a large old city, not nearly as modern or large as Saffron or Celadon. It had lots of grand old stone architecture that gave the city a very ancient feel. Many of the footpaths were cobbled and the old fashioned feel of the city served to make the few modern skyscrapers of the business district look particularly out of place. He continued down the main street, stopping only when he came to a particularly large building at the end of the street opposite the pokemon centre. Again, the walls were made of stone and the roof of the porch area stood atop massive grey pillars that lined the building. The door was flanked by two stone gargoyles and carved into the stone above the door were the words _Viridian City Gym_. He stared at the large building for a long time. He had seen other gyms before like the forest dwelling maze that was Fushcia gym and of course he had worked in Blaine's old gym. He had even gone to see matches at the grass type gym in Celadon when he'd been visiting his aunt and uncle that lived there but he had never quite seen anything quite as imposing as this large structure. It seemed a good fit that the gym leader with the harshest reputation would have the most intimidating looking gym. He eventually dragged himself away from looking at the large behemoth and walked across the square towards the pokemon centre. Unlike all the other shops in the street all the lights were on and the automatic doors opened as he approached. He walked up to the counter and joined the short que where he was soon seen by one of the Nurse Joy sisters.

The sisters were quite famous. Ignis couldn't even remember how many sisters they were but they all held degrees in nursing, were almost identical and worked in various pokemon centres around the globe. They were highly respected, very skilled members of the pokemon centre and almost universally liked. Of course they weren't all called Joy, that was their surname but such was their identical appearance most people just stuck to calling them Nurse Joy. Ignis was called to the front of the line served by one of the sisters. He noted her small nametag on her uniform that read 'Clarence Joy'.

"Hello and welcome, how can I help you?" she said with a big smile.

"I need to heal my pokemon and I also need to register for the league," he started. "This is my Growlithe he said popping the ball up on the counter. "Water gun and trauma to the head, he's had three sprays of a potion about four hours ago," he finished handing over to the Nurse the way his father had taught him.

"Sure thing," said the young nurse jotting down a quick note of what he'd said. "We'll take good care of him for you. Here's the form for League registration, fill it out, sign it and bring it back up to me when you're ready" she said smiling kindly.

Ignis spent nearly the next hour filling out the form, answering various questions and by the time he was finished his eyes were starting to feel very heavy from his early start and long day. He walked back up to the desk that was still manned by Nurse Joy and handed her over the completed documentation.

"You're just in time," she said cheerfully. "I was just about to page you. Your growlithe is ready for collection," she said handing over a pokeball. "Let me just take a swipe of your Pokedex and you'll be all league registered and ready to go," she said entering a code into his pokedex and scanning it with a handheld scanner. "All done," she said cheerfully as the scanner made a loud binging noise and his picture and details appeared the screen infront of her.

Ignis felt a wave of happiness come over him when he saw his image presented on the screen in the same way that trainer's faces were displayed on the big screen at the pokemon league. He had always been in awe of these trainers and now he felt like he had completed his first step towards becoming one.

He got a room for the night from the reception desk which was free of charge now that he had trainer status and headed wearily upstairs. He let himself into the simple room and lay down on the bed still fully clothed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow dreaming of the Pokemon League, a packed audience and his picture on the stadium big screen.


	3. Fight and flight

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello once again and welcome to old friends and new readers alike. I hope you're all still enjoying the story. Please continue to review or pm with your comments, thoughts and suggestions. I really do value all input and will reply as soon as I can.**

Ignis woke up the next morning feeling a lot more refreshed. He had slept like a snorlax from the moment his head had hit the pillow. Sunlight was streaming through the window as he had not taken the time the previous night to pull the curtains. He looked at his watch which showed 08.30 and hurried to shower, wishing he hadn't slept in his clothes the night before. Breakfast at the pokemon centre was from 08:00-10:00 and he was hoping to see Peter before he left. It would be nice thought Ignis to keep in touch with another trainer embarking on their own travels and see how they were doing with their team building and badge collecting. Ignis admired the older boy, particularly for his patience. He knew that Peter had been training pokemon for a long time but to stay committed to your work to the point that you delay your journey so long took great patience. Ignis was sure that Peter would do well though, especially starting off with such a formidable pokemon by his side such as a graveller.

He pulled on a clean t-shirt and strapped his belt onto a pair of jeans, still getting used to the weight of the pokedex and pokeballs on his hip, and went downstairs. The canteen attached to the pokemon centre was quite busy with lots of people of all ages sitting down eating breakfast and talking. Ignis stood near the door and scanned the room looking for Peter.

"Over here Ignis," he heard voice say from his right and saw Peter sitting at a small table alone eating breakfast.

"Hey Peter," he said walking over and standing by the table, "sorry I'm a bit late, slept like a log".

"Not at all, I'm sure it was badly needed after your day yesterday," said Peter with a wry grin. "I'm not here long myself. Grab yourself something to eat and come have a seat".

Ignis got himself something from the food counter and returned to the table a few minutes later feeling ravenous now that the smell of the food had reached his nostrils.

"So what are the plans for today," said Peter taking a sip of his coffee. "Sticking around Viridian for a while or hitting the road?"

"I think I'll hit the road as soon as possible," said Ignis tearing into his breakfast. He was absolutely starving having eaten very little yesterday.

"Yeah, me too, it'll take a couple of days to make our way through Viridian. We could travel together if you like?" said Peter.

Ignis look up from his breakfast chewing thoughtfully. He was sorely tempted by the offer. It would certainly be a much safer way to travel. He had experienced a little of what being alone in the wild had to offer yesterday and it was certainly a lonely place to be when things went wrong. Even so he decided to stick the plan that he had formed months before his journey had even began.

"I'm not actually going that way," he said tentatively gauging the other boy's reaction.

"Really?" said Peter with surprise. "Nearly all new trainers head to Viridian forest as soon as possible. All the bug and flying types make it a great place to add to your team," he continued looking puzzled.

"I know that," Ignis continued expecting the surprised response. "I've given it a lot of thought but I think I'm going to head to Celadon first. I have family there that asked me to visit as soon as possible and my choice of starter doesn't really do me any favours in the Pewter and Cerulean gyms."

Peter regarded Ignis with a curious expression before he started to laugh. "Well aren't you thinking well ahead," he quipped. "I agree that you'd be at a big disadvantage against Brock and Misty and on top of the type disadvantage your Growlithe is still quite young and inexperienced so it might be best to try an alternative route. What way are you thinking of going?"

"I was thinking of just heading east straight for the coast until I hit the road and then following that up north to Celadon," said Ignis glad of the opportunity to thrash out his plan with someone.

"Hmm that's doable alright," said Peter thinking carefully. "Dangerous stretch of land between here and Route 17 though," he said. "Probably not many trainers around and the nearest rangers would be a while getting to you if anything went wrong," he muttered, as much talking to himself as to Ignis.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Ignis trailing off. He respected the older boy's advice to the point that it would actually make him doubt himself. He would never underestimate the fear of being defenceless in the wild again but he really thought that his plan had been a good one.

"Be a bit easier with a travelling companion," chirped Peter with a smile. "I could come with you if you want until were nearly at Celadon then I could head west for Viridian forest and you could head east for Celadon," he finished.

Ignis couldn't believe his ears. Travelling with the older, more experienced trainer would definitely be safer and he'd certainly feel better having that graveller on his side. "Will you not be late getting back to Pewter for work?" he asked.

"Well it should only cost me a half a day at the most so I'll still be back with plenty of time. Whatcha say, fancy travelling together for a few days?" he replied with a smile.

"Sounds great," said Ignis not needing to think about the offer for a second. He finished the last few bites of his breakfast and rose from the table. "I'll head back up there and get ready to go. I can meet you in a half an hour down in reception?"

They agreed and Ignis returned up to the room packing up his few possessions which mostly consisted of clothes, a light sleeping bag, some food and a few potions and antidotes that his mother had given him leaving. He was very glad to have a travelling companion. Ignis didn't mind not having company but safety in numbers this early in his journey before his team had grown a little was a welcome safety net.

Ignis shouldered the small rucksack and headed down the stairs. He surveyed the lobby looking for the older trainer. There was no sign of him yet but he was still a little bit early. He rounded the corner to reception thinking he'd wait there and maybe have some tea before he left only to come face to face with River who was just heading upstairs.

"Well if isn't little Iggy," said the boy with a grin.

"We're the same height River," said Ignis with a frown, he wasn't in the mood for the cocky trainer and after yesterday's events his feelings towards River had gone from something of a rivalry to an outright dislike.

"Well you seem a little smaller after I made such a fool out of your growlithe yesterday," sneered River. "You remember that right? How is the little pooch, did you have to have him put down yet?" he said with a laugh.

"You mean when your older water type got half savaged by my young fire type before you got a lucky shot in?" questioned Ignis. "Yeah, I remember that alright".

"Whatever man, me and my five pokemon are out of here, I presume poor baby still only has the one?" he continued with a mocking sad face before turning around and nearly crashing straight into Peter who had come down the stairs without Ignis noticing and was standing behind them. Peter stared at him expressionless about a second longer than was nessacary; he was about a half a head taller than River and looked quite intimidating. Peter eventually moved to the side to let him pass giving Ignis a quizzical look.

"The famous River I assume?" said Peter scowling, obviously remembering Ignis's story from yesterday.

"The very same," said Ignis still scowling.

"I wouldn't worry too much about how many pokemon he's caught," said Peter. "Lots of people have this stupid 'gotta catch em all' idea in their heads. It doesn't usually lead to great trainers. Better to have a small but balanced team that you can train and develop to a really high standard," he said.

"Yeah, I agree completely," said Ignis. "My father used to say much the same".

"Your father sounds like a clever man," said Peter with a laugh, returning to his usually light-hearted manner. "Shall we get going? We've a lot of ground to cover today".

The two set off out of the pokemon centre and down the old cobbled streets that headed to the east side of Viridian city. It was a bright sunny morning with a light breeze blowing in from the east which made for ideal travelling conditions. They walked until the dense city landscape slowly transformed into the grassy suburbs that surrounded the city and continued onwards for the best part of an hour until the path curved up north towards Viridian Forest to join up with Route 2.

"Off road from here I guess," said Peter agilely hopping over a small wooden fence. "Keep checking your compass, we'll just head directly east and we'll come to Route 16 eventually".

Ignis took out his pokedex opening up the compass application and checked for east. The updated pokedex had all kinds of useful application of this sort including maps, GPS, internet access and a torch along with all the usual uses of checking pokemon facts. You could also check if a ranger was in the area and write a query or request ranger assistance. Probably most importantly of all there was also a small red button on the side of the pokedex which served as a panic button. Once pressed it would send a distress signal to rangers and any other trainers who had a pokedex nearby. The addition of this feature which had been pioneered by Professor Oak himself had resulted in far less deaths in the wild and made travelling alone a little safer. There were heavy penalties for misuse of the feature and some fools had been known to abuse it but generally the idea had been a great success with plenty of stories frequently making it to the region's media of narrow escapes and heroic rescues.

They walked across the expansive grasslands for about an hour, conversation flowing freely amongst the pair. Ignis let growlithe out for the exercise and he sped out ahead of them galloping back and forth happy to be out in the morning air. Ignis learnt much about Peter as they walked. He learnt that graveller was his only pokemon. He had received a geodude in lieu of pay from his employer some years ago with a hope to working his debt off and then undertaking his journey. This wasn't unusual, many people had to pay for their starters or enter waiting lists from professors or gym leaders in their area like Ignis had. However, shortly after receiving his geodude his mother had become ill and Peter had stayed working in Pewter in order to be nearby and able to look after and support her. Sadly she had since passed away and Peter had gone through quite a difficult period of grief until one day his geodude had evolved and this had sparked some of the old fire that Peter had once had for being a trainer.

Ignis felt awful for what Peter had endured so young in his life. He found it hard to even imagine losing his own mother. Peter always seemed so happy and carefree it was difficult to think of the young man so consumed by grief to the point that his ambition had become paralysed. He was glad that Peter had finally decided to resume his plans to be a trainer.

All of a sudden their conversation was interrupted by a loud yelp from further up in the distance where growlithe had been running. The two trainers stopped talking and broke into a run to catch up to where the growlithe had been. They found him ahead in the long grass, a small amount of blood trickling from a wound above his right front leg. He was growly fiercely at a small, horned purple pokemon that Ignis recognized as the female variety of the nidoran species standing on the other side of the small clearing. Blood stained the nidoran's horn and Ignis knew that there was a very good chance that Growlithe may have been poisoned. He slowed as he approached the scene and heard Peter stop behind him.

He saw Growlithe turn its head to look at him just as the nidoran charged forward again, head down, horn forward ready to bloody the dog pokemon again.

"Look out Growlithe, dodge!" he roared. Growlithe quickly recovered his focus and darted to the side just as the poison pokemon went flying by. The nidoran fell to the ground, its momentum rolling it forward and it rose, hissing madly.

"Tackle Growlithe!" Ignis shouted and Growlithe dug its heels into the ground hard gathering traction and gaining speed at a remarkable pace before connecting hard with the nidoran. The nidoran went flying backwards falling into the dust but Growlithe also gave a yelp as they collided. It seemed the nidoran had managed to stab him once more with her poisonous barb before being shunted back. Growlithe spun round to face his opponent who was rising gingerly to its feet while panting hard. A second cut was after opening near its ear and Ignis thought Growlithe seemed far more tired than he should for so early in the battle and guessed that the poison from the first cut must be starting to take effect.

He could see Peter standing well back from the clearing, arms folded watching the battle between the two pokemon. He was sure Peter would help him if he got into too much trouble but he wanted to do this himself. This nidoran was a fierce opponent, quite large for its species and fought viciously, it would make a fine first addition to his team. The nidoran charged blindly forward towards Growlithe again although moving a lot slower than before due to its own injuries.

"Dodge and bite!" Ignis roared.

Growlithe dodged past the nidoran, although the effects of the poison served to make his jump far less agile than it would normally be. Nonetheless it was enough to evade the slowing nidoran and he managed to bit down hard on the nidoran's back as it went by and the nidoran screeched in pain pulling away from the growlithe's jaws.

"Quickly Growlithe finish this, tackle!" Ignis shouted as his hand strayed to an empty pokeball on his hip sensing victory. He doubted the nidoran could take much more punishment. Growlithe summoned the last of his dwindling energy and put on a huge burst of speed crashing into the side of the struggling nidoran sending it crashing in the dirt. It lay there twitching and try to get up as Ignis enlarged the empty pokeball that was now in his hand and flung it at the fallen pokemon. The ball struck the pokemon before bouncing back and opening drawing the pokemon inside with a flash of red light. The ball landed on the ground swaying from side to side, centre light flashing as the pokemon tried to break free of its confines. After a few moments the ball stopped moving and the centre light stopped flashing.

"Alright!" shouted Ignis punching the air. "Growlithe, you were brilliant buddy," he said running over to his growlithe who was looking a lot worse for wear but stood proudly, tongue out, panting heavily from the exertion of the battle. "Lie down buddy and let me put something on your cuts," he said rubbing the growlithe's head. Growlithe quickly complied flopping to the floor as Ignis took out an antidote spraying it into the growlithe's mouth where it would be circulated into the bloodstream. He noted Peter a few steps away with his back to him keeping an eye out for other wild pokemon. He went back to his task, spraying some potion on the open wounds which instantly congealed and began to close. Ignis gave his growlithe one last rub under his chin, still marvelling at the wonders of modern medicine before returning his friend to his pokeball.

"That was a great catch," he heard Peter say and looked up to see the older boy beaming at him.

"Bit too close for comfort," Ignis replied with a grin.

"Yeah that was one tough nidoran. I'd imagine it's quite developed and your growlithe is still very young so you should be very proud of how he handled himself. I'd have stepped in if you needed but if you want that nidoran to respect you as its new trainer you had to catch it yourself one on one or you may have had problems trying to train it".

"Yeah I know that," said Ignis. "I was a lot more relaxed knowing you were there than if that would've happen yesterday though" he said still beaming at the pokeball that contained his newly caught nidoran.

"C'mon lets head up to that clearing and have some lunch and a rest" suggested Peter.

Ignis was more than happy to agree. He found battling to be exhausting and he hadn't even done the work. He looked proudly at growlithe's pokeball. Growlithe really had done a great job. He felt bad for his friend's injuries, although they were nothing as bad as they had been after his battle with River's squirtle. He would be ok after the potions and a rest Ignis told himself.

They sat on the ground for a little resting and chatting amongst themselves. Their choice of resting place in the middle of a clearing at the top of a small hill meant it would be very hard for wild pokemon to sneak up on them but even so they remained vigilant for sight or sound of wild pokemon while they took their break.

"Did you know you wanted a nidoran?" asked Peter after he had taken a long drink from his water flask.

"Not really, I didn't have any particular pokemon in mind. I just want to have a balanced team that will help me on my journey and win badges," said Ignis thoughtfully. "I'm quite happy with the catch though, the ground/poison typing gives me a good spread very early on".

"Yeah, I completely agree and their final evolutions are extremely powerful," added Peter.

"Yeah," said Ignis mind trailing off thinking of himself in the future with a powerful nidoqueen at his side.

They sat there for quite some time talking about catching pokemon and building balanced teams while having some food.

"You know it's been over an hour now if you want to let her out," offered Peter as they were packing up to leave.

New pokeball technology meant that trainers were now advised to let pokemon remain in the pokeball for the first hour. The programming of the pokeball served to make the pokemon more docile to its new situation. This would give trainers a little bit of a head start when training new pokemon as the technology would already have started the process.

"I'm not sure what to expect," replied Ignis with hesitation.

"Well you never can be," replied Peter "but she'll be very weak after her battle with your growlithe so she shouldn't give you much trouble".

Ignis looked at him still quite unsure.

"If she does then I'll let out Graveller and we'll see how much trouble she is then," said Peter with a bright laugh.

"Ok so," said Ignis smiling despite his nerves. He hit the release valve on the nidoran's pokeball and she released onto the ground in a burst of red light. The nidoran was standing but seemed completely disorientated which wasn't unusual for a pokemon's first time in a pokeball.

"Nidoran," said Ignis in a loud, firm voice. The small purple pokemon seemed to snap out of its daze at the sound of Ignis's voice and turned her head towards him and hissed.

"Stop," said Ignis in the same firm voicing raising his finger. The nidoran's growling ceased immediately but it glared at him suspiciously.

"I'm your trainer now," said Ignis, eliciting a fresh hiss from the nidoran. "Stop," he said again slightly louder this time and the nidoran once again ceased. "I'm your trainer now," Ignis continued. "We can do this the easy way if you like. I will feed you and look after you and make you stronger than you ever could have been without me," said Ignis. He noticed the nidoran's ears pick up at the sound of being fed. "Are you hungry?" he said latching on to this opportunity. "Here," he said rummaging in his bag and throwing the nidoran one of the treats that Growlithe loved.

The nidoran sniffed at it suspiciously before taking a small nibble. As soon as it had tasted the small treat it ate the rest in one bite and looked back at Ignis expectantly.

"You want more?" said Ignis with a smile, showing the nidoran another treat in his hand. The nidoran came a little closer and Ignis closed his hand around the treat. "You'll have to play nice if you want it, no more hissing" he said firmly. He took the nidoran's continued silence as an agreement and let her take the second treat, this time from out of his hand.

"I tell you what," said Ignis. "You can stay with me and I'll feed and look after you. I'll train you to become stronger than you could have imagined. Remember my growlithe?" he questioned noting the flash of anger in the nidoran's eyes at the mention of her previous opponent. "He beat you fair and square," continued Ignis. "I'd only had him two days and you saw yourself how strong he is". "I will do everything in my power to look after you and make you stronger but if that doesn't sound good to you then I can release you again".

The nidoran stopped moving seemingly stunned by the offer. Even Peter who had been listening quietly in the background suddenly looked shocked aswell. Nidoran looked over its shoulder at the grassland where Ignis had first encountered him and then back to Ignis and the pokeball. He then looked off into the distance and then back at the backpack that contained the treats before slowly resting its chin on Ignis's knee who was squatting down. Ignis let out a sigh of relief and gingerly put on his hand to stroke the pokemon which she allowed. He fed her one or two treats and then took out some potion to spray on her earlier wounds. Despite her pride she was still quite badly beaten up from her battle with growlithe. Ignis sprayed the potion on the worst of her cuts while feeding her a couple of more. She seemed surprised at the instant relief she felt once the potion hit the spot where Growlithe had bit her and she seemed to grow less tense every minute thereafter. Once he was done treating her wounds he returned her, with her permission, to the pokeball where she could continue to recuperate a little with time.

"Woah," he heard from Peter who had been a silent observer throughout. "I've never seen anyone deal with a pokemon like that before. That was quite the gambit offering to release her".

"Well I would've, I don't want a pokemon who doesn't want me," said Ignis thinking about it.

"Fair enough," said Peter. "Still an unusual approach, usually trainers have to be very firm and strict for the first few hours using force when nessacary. Then once the pokemon is more obedient they make friends with it," said Peter. "You made it obedient by making friends with it," he continued. "That's quite unusual but it worked out well for you".

Ignis was glad it had worked that way. He liked the gutsy little nidoran and didn't want to lose it but nor did he want to rule with an iron fist like some trainers. He clipped the nidoran's pokeball onto his belt next to Growlithe's and shouldered his backpack ready to get going again. Peter packed the last of his things into his own backpack and the pair headed off east in the direction of a small section of forest that rose up in the distance.

The pair walked for about another hour and a half without any incident before they reached the area of woodland. Ignis found he liked travelling with Peter. Besides the safety factor of having a travelling partner he found that conversation flowed freely between the two. They had much the same interests and opinions on pokemon. He learnt that Peter who had always been content with just his starter was now actively looking to expand his team before embarking on his own journey in a month's time. He hoped to use that month to train with any new pokemon he happened to catch while travelling with Ignis. The pair agreed that Peter could capture the next wild pokemon they came across. Ignis had caught his nidoran and both his pokemon could probably do with some more rest and another potion in a few hours before they did any further serious battling.

They continued to walk deeper into the woods. The pokedex had informed them that the area of woodland was not too large and the estimated that the walkthrough time was about two hours. Even though the forest was relatively small the trees grew quite dense and the light faded, obstructed by the foliage of the gigantic old trees as they trudged deeper and their pace soon slowed a little. The pokedex hadn't informed them of any sightings of wild pokemon nearby but Ignis couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. The sightings feature of the pokedex was unreliable at best as it relied solely on the honest reports of other trainers and usually only worked well in densely populated areas. Even so they continued on for some time without seeing so much as a pidgey.

They stopped after a little while to have some water. Just as Peter was opening his backpack a large, furry hand shot out of the foliage overhead and grabbed the handle pulling it upwards. Peter lunged forward grabbing the other handle and pulling fiercely on it. He fell backwards to the ground with the effort dragging a white and brown pokemon that Ignis recognized as a mankey down on top of him. The pokemon gave a wild screech and dealt Peter a blow to his shoulder ripping through his jacket and drawing blood with its sharp claws. Peter shouted in pain as he scrambled backwards to get away from the wild pokemon, blood trickling down his jacket from the open wound. A flash of red light signalled the release of Peter's graveller into the fray and he instantly started to trade blows with the smaller but more agile pokemon. Peter signalled for Ignis who had reached for his growlithe's ball to stay back so he reattached the pokeball to his belt and stepped back a few paces to watch the battle. The two pokemon were battling fiercely. The mankey's eyes were blood red and it was snarling and screeching. In direct contrast Peter's graveller was quiet moving with deliberate strong moves. It seemed relatively unbothered by the mankey's vicious assault as blow after blow landed on its hard body.

Ignis heard Peter give an order that he couldn't make out and graveller grabbed the mankey and threw it with incredible force into a nearby tree causing the large trees whole structure to shake violently. The mankey rose to his feet obviously dazed from the massive impact. Ignis was impressed that it was still conscious at all. As it happened it wasn't conscious for long as graveller rumbled towards its swaying frame crashing into it with a heavy tackle attack.

Just as this happened Ignis noticed another set of eyes glowing from the tree that had shaken and made out the form of another mankey as it dropped down to a lower branch watching the battle below. He had only just trained his eyes on this second mankey and reached for growlithe's pokeball when a third appeared on another tree. Almost instantly the far side of the clearing went from a serene woodland landscape to scene out of a nightmare. Mankey after mankey started to appear within seconds of eachother until Ignis estimated there must be nearly a dozen. He felt his blood run cold as they silently watched the scene unfold below them. Peter hadn't noticed yet as he was concentrating on his battle so much.

"Peter…" said Ignis, his voice shaking despite himself.

Peter didn't hear him, or if he did he ignored him for the sake of finishing the battle. He threw a pokeball at the fallen mankey. Ignis watched the scene as if in slow motion. The ball flew through the air hitting the mankey squarely on the head before bouncing back a few inches. It opened and a large burst of light covered the pokemon pulling it into the ball which rocked back and forth for about three seconds. Those seconds seemed to last an eternity as Ignis watched on in horror along with a dozen other pairs of eyes glowing against the darkness of the shaded forest. The pokeball dinged loudly signalling the capture and ruptured the silence of the seconds which had proceeded. The noise from the pokeball seemed to wake the watching mankeys from whatever trance had kept them silent while watching their brethren be captured and suddenly all hell broke loose.

The woodland erupted with the sound of the pokemon roaring and screeching and even graveller seemed to cower a little as the sound of the blood-curdling screams mingled together into an ear splitting crescendo. Peter who had been about to pick up the pokeball froze rigidly at the eruption of noise and when he looked up all the blood seemed to drain from his face and a look of sheer terror replaced his usual happy features. The sight of Peter who had always seemed so calm and in control appear so afraid sent a shiver down Ignis's spine. The sight of their fellow mankey being knocked out and captured had sent all the other pokemon into a rage and they started to drop to lower and lower branches closing in on the two travellers screeching wildly and ripping branches and throwing them at the travellers as they went. Graveller had dispatched his opponent relatively easily but outnumbered a dozen to one it would have no chance. Despite their size Ignis could see that their arms were extremely strong allowing them to swing from branch to branch. The mankeys were whipping themselves into a murderous frenzy and came closer and closer. Ever second that went by the silhouettes of more and more of the pokemon seemed to appear high up in the trees drawn by the deafening clamour that the forest had erupted into.

Ignis saw Peter scoop up the pokeball and slowly take a couple of steps backwards until the two trainers were standing side by side. The mankeys continued to bay and screech wildly, coming closer and closer, but they also seemed to be waiting for the trainers to make a move. Ignis saw Peter reach slowly into his pocket. He knew from the small flashing red light that he could see emitting through Peter's trousers that the boy had activated the panic alarm on the side of his pokedex. The two trainers locked eyes as the first mankey dropped to the forest floor a mere ten metres from them. Peter whispered a single word, throat seemingly too dry with fear to speak any louder.

"Run".


	4. Arthur Celer

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well! Hello all, it's been a while. Sorry about the delay but things have been a bit hectic at home so I had to put the fic on hold for a few weeks. Many thanks for the favs/ follows and particularly for the few messages of support to keep the fic going, I really appreciate it. As always I would encourage you all to review as this is my first fic and I really do value all feedback and will reply to you. Anyway, enough from me, hope you all enjoy the new chapter.**

 **Chapter 4 – Arthur Celer**

They turned as one and fled through the thick woodland oblivious to the branches and thorns that bruised and bloodied them as they burst through the dense undergrowth. Just behind them they could hear the frenzied cries of the mankeys crashing after them. Peter's graveller had withdrawn to a rollout position and was rolling at tremendous speed in a protective circle around them as they fled and every now and then Ignis could hear the crunch of rock on bone when one of the pursuing pokemon got too close. He knew that they would already have been caught was it not for the large rock-type but he was also quite sure that Graveller could not continue to endure this punishment for much longer. There was simply too many mankeys and every time one was tackled another two would be close behind ready to take its place. He looked a few steps ahead at Peter who, like he, was sweating profusely, glancing frantically around him trying to keep an eye on his pokemon, his friend and his pursuers all at once. This proved to be at the expense of watching where he was going as suddenly his leg got caught under the exposed roots of some nearby foliage and the teenager went flying through the air and crashed headfirst into the base of an old oak tree knocking him out instantly and he crumpled to the ground unmoving.

Graveller was by him in a second bursting out of its rollout position and standing over his unconscious trainer growling fiercely. Ignis also spun around to face his pursuers throwing his two pokeballs as he did and Growlithe and Nidoran emerged with a burst of white light. He wouldn't just leave Peter but even as he turned he knew that it was all futile. They were outnumbered too severely and he felt fear grip the inside of his chest. They were all going to die.

The mankeys that had caught up with him stood only a few feet away cautious enough of Graveller to wait for the weight of numbers to catch up. The first mankey that charged Graveller burst from the undergrowth screaming wildly and without stopping to size up the situation jumped screaming and snarling at Graveller. He was caught mid-air by all four of the rock pokemon's hands who proceeded to drive the pokemon headfirst into the hard sun-dried ground. Ignis winced as he heard the sound of breaking bones. The rock pokemon was fighting with a ferocity that Ignis had never witnessed even in a Pokemon League match. A type of ferocity and ruthless efficiency that seemed to overcome type advantage but even so Ignis knew it could not overcome the sheer weight of numbers against them, still increasing by the second as more and more mankeys emerged from the woodland and circled around the group waiting for their chance to strike, their eyes glowing red and their shrill voices baying through the forest. Three more charged directly at Graveller who caught the first with a rock throw attack that smashed against the pokemon's skull before the other two tackled him mercilessly.

"Growlithe, tackle!" roared Ignis pointing at one of Graveller's two attackers. Growlithe moved at lightning speed and blindsided the unsuspecting pokemon who was hurled into a nearby tree leaving Graveller to dispatch his own opponent one on one. He could tell that the rock pokemon did not have much more fight left in him, it had dropped to one knee and was breathing heavily.

"Nidoran, watch out!" screamed Ignis at the last second as he whirled to his left just in time to see two mankeys charging his small poison type. His warning just about made it in time. Nidoran whirled around and ducked under a fierce karate chop from a particularly big looking mankey and jumped into a tackle attack driving her poisonous barb into the belly of her attacker who fell back with a squeal, blood and poison gushing from the open wound in its midriff. Ignis barely had time to admire how quickly his newly acquired pokémon had reacted when the second mankey caught it on the side with a fury attack pummelling it into the ground punch after punch. Nidoran just about managed to jump free of the ferocious attack and squared up to meet her opponent when another mankey ran in from her side and karate chopped down on top of his pokémon's head knocking Nidoran out cold. Both mankeys jumped on the fallen pokemon and more mankeys rushed in, eyes glowing red, arms thrashing wildly, their screams piercing the silence of the forest.

Ignis just had time to recall Nidoran to the safety of the pokéball, much to the confusion of her attackers, when he heard a crash to the side of him and noticed Growlithe being flung back into the same large oak that Peter lay against. At the same moment Graveller crashed to the ground after finally losing consciousness battling numerous mankeys and with no trainer to recall him the mankeys continued to beat him relentlessly, completely overcome by their rage and bloodlust.

Ignis had no time to worry about Graveller before he felt a searing pain across his left shoulder as one of the mankeys that had been fighting Nidoran scratched fiercely at her now unprotected trainer. Ignis fell backwards feeling the wetness of his own blood flowing down his arm from the open wound. He pushed himself back to his feet and swung with his walking staff at the oncoming mankey's head but the pokémon sidestepped the thrust easily and broke the staff to pieces with a fiercely timed karate chop. He felt his hand smart in pain as the staff exploded from his grasp by the force of the chop and then a second mankey rushed him and tore at his leg opening up a large wound that sprayed his attacker with blood and Ignis screamed despite himself as he crumpled to the ground under his own weight. One of the larger mankeys jumped on top of him braying madly and placed two hairy hands around his throat and the forest started to swim and darken as the pressure of the grip overcame his senses and all faded to...

Fire.

Ignis felt the pressure release as a wave of blistering heat passed just feet over him and his senses rushed back to him. He looked to his right and saw his bruised and bloodied growlithe standing beside him, standing on top of Graveller's unmoving form, maw open, with a small but steady stream of fire erupting from it, spraying the mankeys forcing them to jump back from the flames and creating a fiery barrier between them and their aggressors. Ignis looked at his young companion in amazement. He recognized the attack instantly as ember but he would not have thought his growlithe developed enough to learn it. The stream of fire slowly petered out and Growlithe gasped for air, obviously exhausted from the effort it had taken.

The mankeys did not instantly charge when the attack abated and Ignis saw that one in particular had taken the brunt of the attack and lay on the ground infront of him, fur smouldering and smoking and the rancid smell of burning flesh filled the air. Ignis struggled to kneel upright on his good leg. The mankeys were obviously cautious of this new threat and Growlithe barked a warning at the first one who was brave enough to start towards them and it froze glaring fiercely at the dog pokemon. The two pokemon stared at eachother for a few moments, the other mankeys seemingly watching to see what would happen to their braver companion and he finally gave a blood-curdling cry and charged only to be hit squarely in the chest and blown backwards by another stream of fire.

This attack lasted far less time than the first ending in a trail of smoke and steam rather than fire and Ignis knew in his heart that Growlithe was spent. He was panting fiercely and did not have the energy for another attack. The mankeys at the other side of the clearing seemed to realise this aswell and they all charged together roaring madly and baying for blood and vengeance.

Ignis reached to his belt for Growlithe's ball. If this was the to be the end then they would not get his pokemon too. Growlithe could last for days safe in the suspended animation of the pokeball. He unclasped the ball when suddenly fire filled the clearing for the second time. But this was no ember attack, the fire circled and spun around the clearing blasting off several of the mankeys and obliterating foliage and branches in its path. Ignis felt the heat from the attack sucking the air from the clearing, an incredible heat, like that from a furnace. He watched the flames engulf all around but what he saw and what he was prepared to believe did not correlate. There was no way that his young pup could manage to produce this attack yet here it was. For he knew what attack he was witnessing even if he couldn't quite believe it.

Fire Spin.

Whatever rage was left in the remaining mankeys was quickly overtaken by fear and they retreated into the forest with flames licking behind them, shrieking wildly as they went. Ignis finally managed to make out Growlithe through the flames but rather than bellowing from his mouth Ignis saw that his pup looked as awestruck as he was at the flames that seemed to dance all around them.

Suddenly a large silhouette jumped clear over one of the fires left behind and Ignis finally understood the source of the attack. A large rapidash landed just ahead of him and on his back was a man in his fifties with wispy silver hair and a large moustache, dressed in the dark green of a pokemon ranger. The man swung down from his huge fire-type and surveyed the scene looking from Ignis's bloodied body to the barely conscious Growlithe to Peter and Graveller's unmoving forms.

"Mew's tail," he muttered shaking his head before unclipping a radio from his belt.

"Romeo Papa 2-4 to control. On scene at distress call, further assistance necessary. Four immediate causalities, two human, two pokemon with one of each in critical condition, request rapid extraction".

Someone on the other end signalled an affirmative and the ranger reclipped the radio to his belt drawing a pokeball with the same hand and summoning a starmie.

"Put out these fires before we burn the forest down Starmie," he said pointing at the areas of woodland that still blazed after the rapidash's powerful attack and the starmie set about blasting the flaming areas with water gun attacks causing large plumes of steam to rise from the doused areas. The ranger made his way over to Peter and reached down to take a pulse. Apparently satisfied he made his way over to Graveller and inspected the rock pokémon. He shook his head several times reaching to his belt and spraying the pokémon several times before rubbing some gel into cracks in the pokémon's body before finally returning the pokemon to the pokeball he had taken from Peter's belt. Only after all this did he finally turn and look at Ignis.

"Sit," he said gruffly pulling out some thick bandages and kneeling down started to dress Ignis's wounds in an effort to stop the blood that was flowing rapidly from the large scratch marks. "What the hell happened here," he asked sternly looking around the clearing.

So Ignis explained everything that had happened. From his decision to cut across country to Peter's battle and capture of the original mankey to their retreat and battle right up to the moment help had arrived. The ranger listened the whole time, never interrupting but continuing to tend to Ignis's wounds. When Ignis finally reached the end of the story the ranger stood back up and shook his head in amazement.

"You have no idea how lucky you all are," he said, eyes piercing Ignis's own with a stare. "There is only three rangers in a hundred kilometre radius of this area and of the other two neither has a pokemon as fast as my rapidash and I happened to be closest," he said never breaking eye contact with Ignis.

"Another few minutes and I'd have been arriving to two dead trainers and I've had too many of those calls in a long career as it is," he said but in a somewhat softer voice. "My God, why couldn't you go to Viridian forest or Safari like all the other rookies?"

Ignis never got to answer him because at that moment the ranger's radio crackled back to life with another ranger requesting their exact position.

"Give 'em our position Rapidash," he said and Rapidash cocked it's head towards the heavens and sent one ball of fire directly upwards into the sky.

"As good as any flare," said the ranger with the smallest of smiles.

A moment later a large pidgeot swooped out of the sky carrying another ranger on its back. This ranger was far younger, perhaps in his early thirties Ignis thought and immediately looked to the older ranger for orders.

"Go see to the unconscious lad, he seems to be stable but I want a full set of vitals and try and bring him round if you can," ordered the older ranger and the younger one rushed over to tend to Peter. The pidgeot took off into the sky and circled above them like a watchful guardian ensuring that no wild pokemon would sneak up on them.

"We're going to get you airlifted by helicopter to the ranger outpost nearby on route 17, just south of Celadon city where we have further medical assistance waiting for you and your pokémon," said the ranger. "It is probably best if you return your growlithe until then."

Ignis unclipped his pokeball and looked at his loyal companion. He was still utterly amazed that his Growlithe could have learned ember so quickly. He had read that extreme situations could sometimes trigger the learning of new moves or even evolutions but to see it happen had left him in amazement of his starter.

"Thanks for everything buddy, you saved us all," said Ignis. Growlithe gave one weak bark in reply before being cocooned in the red light of the pokeball and withdrawn.

The two rangers continued to work on the injured teenagers for a few minutes before above them the younger ranger's pidgeot shrieked a warning and Ignis could faintly hear the sound of a helicopter drawing ever nearer. The fact that they were actually safe finally seemed to kick in and what little adrenaline that had been keeping him going through his blood-loss and fear petered out to nothing and he felt the world start to swim. For the second time that day his vision started to blur and blackness started to envelope him. He felt the ranger catch him before he fainted and the older man's voice came through the quickly enveloping darkness, a gentle voice, far kinder than it had been before.

"You're alright lad, we've gotcha, you'll be alright."

And then there was darkness.

Ignis awoke feeling groggy. He looked around the room as his eyes focused and saw that it was mostly made of wood, like that of a log cabin and he realised he must be in the ranger's outpost. His shoulder was bandaged up tightly with clean white bandages and noticed an IV line going into the vein in his arm.

"Bout time you woke up," he heard a voice say and he looked to his right and saw Peter sitting up in the bed next to him grinning widely.

"How long was I out?" replied Ignis weakly, surprised at how dry his mouth was.

"Nearly a full day ya big snorlax!" said Peter getting out of bed and pouring Ignis some water which he handed him with a smile.

Ignis drank the cool liquid gratefully feeling it sooth his parched throat.

"They had to give you antibiotics because they were afraid of infection from those mankey attacks," continued Peter pointing to the IV line getting more serious. "I watched the doctor stitch you up, those were some nasty cuts man," he said shaking his head ruefully. "I nearly got us both killed capturing that mankey," said Peter, voice trailing off and eyes flicking to a pokéball on his bedside locker that Ignis knew must contain said mankey.

"You weren't to know," said Ignis. "Anyway it was my idea to go that way, you only tagged along and if you hadn't then I'd be dead for sure. Graveller fought like ten pokemon". Ignis's eyes flicked back to the single pokeball on Peter's locker and back to Peter. "How is Graveller?"

"Not good," said Peter, his face suddenly losing all of its cheer. "They say he has a good chance of recovering but even if he does he won't be doing any battling for a few weeks. Those mankeys damn near killed him and rock pokemon are particularly hard to kill," he said with a hint of venom coming into his voice when he mentioned the mankeys.

Before Ignis could reply a doctor swept into the room followed by the older ranger that had saved them.

"Good, you're awake, good, good," said the doctor starting to bustle about reading various monitors and picking up his chart from the end of the bed. "How do you feel?" he said in a booming cheerful voice.

"Not bad, bit weak," said Ignis.

"That's to be expected m'boy, only to be expected. You'll feel a lot better in a few hours and once you've had some food but even so I'd like to keep you in overnight just to observe you," said the doctor with a kind smile.

"Thank you," Ignis said to the doctor and then turned to face the ranger. "Growlithe?" he asked, looking at the ranger.

"Made a full recovery," said the ranger with a wide smile that was far from anything he had displayed in the forest. "He's with the nurse right now but you can see him soon, in fact I'll bring him in to see you myself in a few hours after you've had some food and some more rest."

The ranger came and sat in the seat alongside Ignis's bed and looked at him intently. "I'm Arthur by the way, Arthur Celer" he said extending a hand which Ignis shook. "I gotta tell you, I've seen a lot of pokemon in my time as ranger in these parts but that growlithe of yours is exceptional. Our scans tell us he knows ember which is quite possibly unheard of in one so young. Also the size of a growlithe's paws are usually a good indication of how big they will grow to be and it looks like your growlithe is going to be colossal". The ranger took a breath and laughed quietly to himself. "That's before I even ask how a rookie trainer ends up with such a rare pokemon as a starter?"

Ignis listened to the ranger with awe and pride in his partner pokemon. They sat and talked for a while and Ignis filled the ranger in on the circumstances and twist of fate that meant he had come to have Growlithe.

The ranger seemed to take particular interest in this. "So Growlithe is a descendant of Oak's famous Arcanine,"he muttered, as much to himself as to Ignis. "Well kid, you couldn't pay for better breeding than that, it explain's a lot about the pokémon's pedigree. However there may even be more to it than that," he continued. "It's possible that forming such a strong bond as early as you have has actually strengthened your Growlithe's development. They are a naturally loyal pokemon who need to have companionship but it generally takes a far longer time to get to the stage of complete trust that you seem to have in eachother" said the ranger thoughtfully. "That mixed together with the excellent breeding means that you've got a helluva pokemon by your side," he finished before rising from his seat and heading for the door as another ranger came in with a tray laden with food. "You better get some more rest and something to eat," he finished nodded at the food.

The ranger went to follow the doctor, who had finished checking on Peter, from the room but Ignis called him just as he was going.

"Thank you… for everything" he said, his voice still far too weak for his own liking.

The rangers looked from him to Peter and back again and gave another wide smile.

"Don't mention it kid, just doing my job" he said and stepped out as the other ranger brought over a tray laden with steaming hot soup.

Ignis ate gratefully and felt some of his old strength return as he filled Peter in on everything that had happened up to the rangers turning up including Graveller and Growlithe's heroics. He had just finished when there was a knock on the door and in bounded his faithful companion and jumped on the bed and began licking his face all over.

"Get him down quickly before Nurse Joy has me shot," whispered the ranger with the same kindly smile he had given earlier and Ignis forced Growlithe on to the ground next to him where he continued to rub him behind the ears.

The ranger walked to his bedside and placed his pokébelt on the locker. "Growlithe's ball and your Nidoran," he said. "Make sure you get some rest soon, it's getting late and you still have a good bit of recovering to do."

Ignis woke early the next morning feeling a lot more like his old self. He was still a little sore and stiff but his wounds were much better and the one on his thigh had almost healed up completely. Silently thanking the wonders of modern medicine he made his way out of bed pleased to see that he had no problems bearing weight on his injured leg. He got dressed and motioned silently for Growlithe to follow him, careful not to wake Peter and made his way outside to get some air. The sun was just up and the morning air was crisp and refreshing. He stood in the porch of the cabin looking out at the view. From here he could see the road stretching northbound towards Celadon and the forest that had nearly claimed all their lives off to the southeast. The view seemed so serene and peaceful from here that it was hard to believe the terror they had all gone through the day before. As he looked to the south he saw Ranger Celer who had rescued them yesterday feeding his rapidash from a small bucket and he made his way over to the pair.

He could feel Growlithe's awe at the magnificent fire pokemon as they got closer and closer. The flames on the pokémon's mane shimmered and danced in the sunlight and the sleek, well-groomed hair shone in the morning sun. The light red eyes of the pokemon noticed him before the ranger did staring directly into his own before moving its attention to his puppy companion who seemed cowed by the attention from the fire horse. Fire types are well known to naturally respect other fire types and Rapidash was a creature to behold and Ignis knew just by looking at it that it would not be out of place even in Blaine's team.

"Good morning Ignis," said the ranger who by now had noticed the pair. "You're looking a lot better this morning".

"I feel it too," replied Ignis with a smile before turning to face the rapidash who stared unblinking at him.

"Thank you for yesterday. If it was not for your speed and power we would not be here today," said Ignis with gratitude and Growlithe gave a soft bark as if in agreement.

Rapidash blinked once in acknowledgement before spraying a small harmless trickle of flame at Growlithe which seemed to delight the puppy before the two went bounding off across the field with Growlithe chasing the larger pokemon who was, Ignis knew, only moving at a canter compared to its true potential.

The ranger laughed deeply. "It's good for Growlithe to have some time with Rapidash. He can learn a lot even in a short time from her, particularly when he's still trying to completely master that ember attack".

"She's a fantastic pokemon," commented Ignis as they watched the pair bounding across the field together.

"We've been together a long time," said the ranger looking wistful. "I used Ponyta over thirty years ago when I was competing on the gym circuit and these days she's the perfect companion in order for me to be an effective ranger…as you discovered yesterday," he added with a little twinkle in his eye.

"You were a competitive trainer? Did you ever make it to the Pokemon League in Indigo Plateau?" asked Ignis with interest.

"I competed there once. I got to the last eight over thirty years ago. I was eventually knocked out by the eventual winner and was recruited soon after to the rangers where I've spent my life since" he said with a reminiscent look.

"Wow," said Ignis impressed. Last eight was a really big achievement especially for someone's first games and to be knocked out only by the eventual winner was an even bigger achievement.

"Peter said you have relatives in Celadon?" he asked turning away from the two pokemon who were by now both blowing plumes of fire into the air.

"Yeah my aunt and uncle live in the southern suburbs, we should get there by tomorrow if we leave after breakfast".

"Well I can do one better than that," continued the ranger. I have some business to conduct in the city today so I'll be leaving here by jeep in an hour and you're both welcome to come along. Tell you the truth I'd prefer that you didn't walk too much on that leg for at least another day and undo all our good word" he said kindly.

Ignis was delighted with the offer. They'd make the trip in a couple of hours by car and wonders of modern medicine or not his thigh still ached where the mankey had gouged him. He also felt a lot better knowing that he would see his family today particularly after the troubling start to his journey.

"That'd be great, I really can't thank you enough for everything you've done for us".

"I hope you understand," said the ranger his voice getting very serious. "Some rangers wait their whole career for a call like I got yesterday. Too many times have we arrived too late as usually when someone hits the panic button it is already too late. To arrive just in the nick of time like I did yesterday makes it all worth it, I'll treasure that call…so I'd rather you not collapse from exhaustion halfway to Celadon," he finished with a laugh before motioning for Ignis to follow him back to the cabin.

They arrived to the outskirts of Celadon later that evening about ten minutes walk from Ignis's aunt and uncle's house. Ranger Celer left them at a junction and bade them all good luck. He also left them his card and phone number in case they should ever need anything and continued on his way to Celadon city centre.

"This is where we must part ways too," said Peter as they watched the jeep roll out of sight. "The lift helped a lot but I'm still running behind schedule and it's important that I'm back in work on time".

"Can you not at least stay for dinner?" asked Ignis. "My family wouldn't mind, they'd love to have you".

"I'm afraid not Ignis," I've only got a short time left to work before I undertake my own journey. My employers have always been great to me and I don't want them thinking that I slacked off as soon as I knew I was leaving. If I get the night bus back to Pewter then I should make it in time" he finished. "I have your pokédex number though so I'm sure our paths will cross again very soon," he finished with a smile.

With that Peter clasped him on the shoulder and smiled before turning and heading the short distance down the road to the bus stop and Ignis too turned and headed into the maze of grassy suburbs that dotted the southern coastline south of Celadon. He had not visited his Aunt and Uncle for many years but he still found it quite easily, childhood memories proving more than enough to guide him to the large redbrick house.

He knocked on the front door and his aunt opened the it after a few moments pausing to take in the sight of her nephew-in-law before releasing a shrill cry directed up the stairs.

"Eli! He's here!" she yelled, loud enough to wake a sleeping snorlax before pulling Ignis into a hug that knocked much of the wind out of him.

Ignis saw his uncle emerge from upstairs from over his aunt's shoulder who was still crushing him to death. His uncle smiled widely as he came down the stairs two at a time with the agility and of a far younger man. "Alright, alright, let him breathe," he laughed clapping Ignis on the back as his aunt released him.

"Well that took you a bit longer than you estimated," said Eli, eyes twinkling. "I told you that you can't predict what'll happen on the road".

Eli was very tall with a light brown hair, and short beard that covered much of his face. He had twinkling blue eyes that shone with excitement and was very tanned from his constant travel to more exotic areas. Ignis's father had been quite a good trainer in his own right before he'd joined the army but it had always been his uncle Eli who had had the real talent for it. He had competed at the Pokemon League several times in his younger years before being recruited to an ambassadorial government job that required him to travel near and far, a job that perfectly suited his adventurous personality.

"You'd better come in and tell me what you've been up to," he said walking into the nearby kitchen. He poured the pair some lemonade while his aunt busied herself cooking dinner but still listening intently.

Ignis told his uncle everything from the team Rocket attack on the corral to how he came to have Growlithe to meeting Peter and finally their attack and rescue by Arthur Celer before finally sitting back in his chair out of breath.

"Wow," said his uncle with a blank stare. "You sure know how to start a journey. I don't think even in my heyday I would've managed to get in so much trouble in such a short space of time".

"First thing's first," he said with a look of incredulity. "You mean to tell me that you have a growlithe as a starter and that your growlithe's mother is Oak's Arcanine?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" laughed Ignis, drinking some more of his lemonade.

"Ignis, I don't think you get it. Oak's Arcanine was very famous back in the day when he was competing. Short of his dragonite, and hell, that should speak for itself it was without a doubt the number two on his team. So you've got the descendant of the number two pokemon of probably one of the greatest trainer's that ever lived. Usually a pokemon like that would be sold for a hefty price to the army or some government agency and you ended up with it as a starter," he finished trailing off with an amazed look on his face.

"Yeah, Ranger Celer said something similar although not in as many words," added Ignis.

Eli roared with laughter at this and Ignis look at him perplexed. "That particular penny hadn't even dropped with me kid," said Eli still chuckling. "Arthur Celer was, and still is a great trainer. I remember watching him in the Pokemon League when I was about your age. He caused quite a stir, coming into the competition a virtual unknown entity, he dispatched opponents like they weren't there and quickly became a fan favourite.

"Yeah he told me he got to the last eight," added Igis.

"Last eight?! Eli burst, booming with laughter once more. "Well that's technically true but no one was in any doubt that he was the second best trainer in that whole competition. He was the only one who gave the eventual winner a run for his money. I remember that match like it was yesterday. Celer even managed to knock out his opponents dragonite, the only trainer who managed that in the whole competition I might add, before eventually losing out to the trainer's Arcanine.

The penny finally dropped for Ignis and he saw Eli laugh at him again as comprehension dawned. "You mean to tell me..." Ignis started before his uncle finished the sentence for him.

"Yup, Celer lost to Oak in the last eight that year in one of the best matches in Pokemon League history in my opinion. It's no wonder that he took an interest in your growlithe. I would say he remembers Growlithe's mother very well indeed. To the best of my knowledge Celer was recruited by the rangers straight after and pretty much runs the ranger division in Kanto these days.

"Wow," said Ignis. "To be fair his Rapidash saw off nearly a dozen angry mankeys without breaking a sweat," he continued thinking back to the timely arrival and the burst of fire that had blazed through the woodland saving them all from certain death.

"Sounds about right," said Eli laughing brightly. He stood up from the table then draining the last of his lemonade. "I think it's about time I met these pokemon of yours and then I have something to show you that I think will hopefully help you on your journey".

Ignis gave him a quizzical look but his uncle simply replied that the quicker he introduced him to his pokemon the sooner he'd reveal his surprise so they made their way out to the spacious back garden that was surrounded on all sides by hip-high hedges that marked the boundaries. There was a small rock pool by the west side of the garden and Ignis spotted at least two magikarp swimming gently around its fringes. They strode out a little into the garden lawn and Ignis released his Nidoran that stood obediently ready for action, awaiting his orders and eyeing Eli suspiciously. Ignis realised that the last time Nidoran had been released had been under very different circumstances so he quickly assured the young pokemon that Eli was a friend and that there was nothing to worry about and saw her noticeably relax. The two treats the Eli took out of his pocket and threw to her didn't do any harm either.

"I see you've found her soft spot," said Ignis laughing as he watched the Nidoran greedily guzzle the food down and look expectantly to Eli for more.

"Ah that tends to be the case with most wild pokemon," Eli replied throwing another treat. "I must saw that's a big Nidoran, as big as I've seen," said Eli with a whistle.

"I think it may have been a loner or got separated from its herd." said Ignis, "because when I found her she was all alone."

"That makes a lot of sense," Eli continued with a nod. "In the wild on your own it's get strong quick or die quick. It seems your Nidoran chose the former option," Eli replied throwing the last treat. "Now, let's see this starter of yours," he said looking at Ignis expectantly. Ignis quickly complied releasing Growlithe from his pokeball. Growlithe had almost an opposite reaction to Nidoran bounding playfully over the Ignis and putting his two front paws on his chest, tongue wagging side to side.

Eli stood and looked at the pokemon for some time before eventually splitting into a massive grin. "Kid, the chances of finding a pokemon like that in the wild are practically zero. Growlithe are very rare to begin with and it's instantly apparent that this one is special, look at the size of his paws!" he gasped as his eyes finally flitted to the pokémon's large feet. "You know that's a pretty good indication..."

…Of how big they'll get," Ignis finished for him smiling proudly. "Yeah Arthur said so."

"And he's not wrong, this one is going to grow to be a powerful pokemon," Eli finished, addressing Growlithe as much as Ignis who barked playfully in response.

"They can stay out here and play if you like, it's quite safe," said Eli. "Come back into the house and I'll show you what I got for you," he said, eyes twinkling once again with excitement. Ignis followed him back into the house and Growlithe and Nidoran bounded happily around the lawn together. Eli led him upstairs and along the landing to a room at the end of the corridor.

"You know I was trying to think what would be the best thing to get you started on your journey. I remember how hard it can be trying to get a team together, train them and challenge gyms all the while travelling almost night and day. As you know I do a lot of travelling and I was in Johto a few weeks ago and managed to procure an item that I think you might be very interested in," he said smiling kindly.

This instantly doubled Ignis's interest. It was very difficult to procure any items from outside Kanto since the war had started and he knew that his uncle had probably had to pull a few strings to get so much as a custom pokéball through customs.

Eli opened the door to the room and Ignis was instantly hit by a blast of heat. The room was exceptionally warm. Despite the hot day outside the windows were shut tight and the curtains drawn and all the radiators were blasting out heat. Ignis gasped as the light from the corridor illuminated the bed. There, placed neatly on a pillow and gleaming against the encroaching slit of light, was a pokémon egg.


	5. The element of surprise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello all once again for the latest chapter of Ignis. As always I'd like to thank everyone for their support and messages, favs and follows. I'd particularly like to thank nightwoodinn who has been following from the very first day and remains a constant supporter and source of encouragement. I've taken a few steps away from the canon in this chapter (nothing crazy) as I wanted to make the gym battles a bigger affair, inspired in that regard by 's** _ **The Game of Champions**_ **which, though unfinished, is in my view the best pokémon fanfiction every written. Remember to keep in touch by review or message, I value all feedback and will reply. Hope you all enjoy!**

Ignis stared at the egg in amazement. The light from the corridor caught its shiny outer surface and it shone brightly. Ignis could see that it was a shade of dark yellow with some black markings that went all around its surface.

"Woah," was all Ignis managed, his eyes still fixed firmly on the egg.

"That was not easy to get let me tell you," his uncle laughed. "Ever since the regions started warring there's been a massive embargo on pokémon or even trainers managing to travel. I had to pull a few strings at work to get a licence to bring it back and even at that these aren't exactly commonly come across…so I hope you like it," finished his uncle.

Ignis was well aware of that. Ever since the war started there was terrible difficulty getting visas to and from other regions and the amount of pokémon that weren't indigenous had declined to the point that while seeing a trainer with a pokémon from outside of Kanto was not impossible, it was certainly unusual.

"I don't know what to say, thank you so much," he said taking his eyes off the egg for the first time and looking at his uncle. "What pokémon is it?"

"I could tell you if you like but its period of incubation is more or less over. Seeing as I didn't have an incubator to hand I made do with the hot room but that seems to have worked well enough. I reckon it'll need just another week or so before it hatches so if you want to leave it as a surprise then you won't have to wait long?" his uncle offered smiling.

"Yeah, I'd prefer that," said Ignis thinking to himself. "Can I touch it?" he asked.

"Absolutely, in fact from now on I'd recommend that you go nowhere without it. Lots of studies show that bonds can form even before the time of hatching so I'd encourage you to treat it like a member of your team from this point on".

Ignis crossed the room to the bed and placed his palm on the egg which was smooth as polished marble and oddly cool despite the warmth of the room.

"Pick it up and bring it downstairs, its more than ready to leave the heat of the room so long as we don't bring it outside too quickly," said his uncle leaving the room and Ignis followed cradling the egg in his arms like a newborn baby.

They arrived back down to the kitchen just in time to see his aunt putting dinner on the table and Ignis suddenly realised how hungry he was.

"Oh good, you gave it to him!" chimed his aunt with a bright smile looking at the egg.

"I did but he doesn't know what it is yet so say nothing," said Eli quickly before his aunt could give it away and she quickly made a zipping motion across her lips and laughed.

They talked for some time about a variety of things, family and Eli's work and Ignis was just started to feel drowsy after his large meal and long few days when suddenly Eli asked a question that had him awake very quickly.

"I presume you'll be challenging Erika while you're here then Ignis?" he said sitting forward in his chair and clasping his hands together.

"That's the plan anyway," Ignis replied. "I thought I'd have a better shot at starting against her than the likes of Brock" he said trying to gauge his uncle's reaction.

"Oh I completely agree. Erika's tough though, maybe not on the level of Blaine or Giovanni but she's no walkover and I don't think she gets many no badge trainers challenging her. In fact sometimes having no badges can go against you as leaders don't take you seriously. It's hard to blame them, they must get hundreds of no badge trainers every year thinking they've got what it takes when in reality they can't tell a Seadra from a Starmie. I don't expect that you'll have it easy against her but you've got one major advantage" he finished looking at Ignis to point out what it was.

"Yeah, my fire type will be very strong against any of her grass types," said Ignis enthusiastically. "So I've got the elemental advantage".

"Yes and no," said Eli sitting back and looking thoughtful. "Erika is well used to trainers using fire types against her. I've watched many of her gym matches on television or from the stands and she has a whole host of tricks for dealing with a fiery offensive. What you have on your side is that fire is unexpected" he finished looking at Ignis with a gleam in his eye.

"Huh? How is it unexpected?" said Ignis. "She'll see Growlithe and she'll…"

"She'll think the same thing that any other highly experienced trainer would think," finished Eli for him. "That there's no way a growlithe that young could possibly have learnt ember. And that," he finished, "is your advantage".

Ignis looked at him dumbstruck. It made complete sense now that he thought about it. Even Ranger Celer had said that he'd never seen a growlithe so young be able to use ember. Erika would likely expect tackles and bite attacks and instead of keeping her distance like an experienced trainer would when facing a fire type, he may be able to draw her in close and then hit her with his secret weapon.

"So your completely right in saying you have the elemental advantage," continued Eli. "But that element, is that of surprise, possibly the strongest element of all," he said smiling.

"That's a great plan," said Ignis smiling wildly and wishing he could run off and challenge straight away. "I'll only get one shot though, the moment she sees that Growlithe can use ember she'll readjust her fighting style".

"I couldn't agree more," said Eli nodding. "You'll have to make sure you don't use that attack when facing her second".

"Her second?" said Ignis quizzically.

"Yes, every gym leader has a second. They are a trainer who serves as a kind of quality control insurance, otherwise they'd be inundated with challengers. That's the stuff the TV stations don't show you," said Eli laughing. "Second's are exactly what the name implies, second in command. Usually a young trainer who started off particularly efficient in a particular type and has risen their way through the gym to become the gatekeeper to the gym leader. You'll have to beat Erika's second in order to challenge her but don't worry, you're more than capable of that. Second's are nowhere as good as the gym leaders, they're just an instrument used to ensure that trainers don't waste a leader's time. Once you get to four badges or more you don't even have to face seconds, your previous badges are seen as proof enough of your worthiness".

"So my main job is to beat Erika's second without using ember and showing my hand," finished Ignis.

"Precisely," Eli nodded. "Maybe take tomorrow to train and particularly to hone Growlithe's ember attack. That's gonna be your ace card when it comes to Erika and then you can look into challenging the gym the day after. "Anyway for now you'd better get some rest, I'll show you to your room," he said getting up from his chair and stretching.

He brought Ignis down the corridor to a small but comfortable room and bade him goodnight. Ignis was changed and into bed in a few moments and lay down looking at the yellow egg that rested on his pillow before sleep took him and he dreamt of egg hatchings and endless possibilities.

Ignis spent the next day training hard with Nidoran and Growlithe. Growlithe seemed to grow faster and stronger by the hour and it could have been Ignis's imagination but he was sure that Growlithe's constant improvements and willingness to train actually spurred Nidoran to train harder. Growlithe had spent that first hour of the day practicing his ember over and over again on a large boulder near the end of Eli's garden that was by now red hot. At first the ember attacks had been largely wild and untamed bursts of fire like in the forest but as the morning progressed the flame grew to a more focused hotter stream of fire that could be controlled and directed. The more they practiced the easier it was for Growlithe to call on ember almost instantly without having to take a second or two to summon the fires and by the end of the hour the face of the large boulder was positively glowing red.

Next Ignis worked on the speed and agility of both pokémon setting them a makeshift obstacle course that would be best traversed by the use of agility before ending in a tackle or bite attack on some mannequins that Eli had lent him from his garden shed. The course encouraged the pokémon to be able to change direction quickly, which honed their speed and agility. Growlithe won all of the races, except for one where Nidoran tripped him a split second before Ignis said go but Ignis didn't mind. He liked the competitive side of his little poison companion and Growlithe was too playful to care less.

By the time they stopped for lunch they were all very tired and Ignis was almost hoarse from shouting commands and encouragement. Eli suggested that he take Growlithe to do some more agility work over the nearby fields so that Ignis could have some one to one time with Nidoran. Growlithe was quite happy to go anywhere that allowed him to run and the alone time seemed to suit the poison pokémon well as it worked tirelessly to please Ignis. Ignis had her scratching the same rock that Growlithe had been working with earlier in an effort to harden her scratch attack. This worked well and after a slow start Nidoran soon started putting long gouges into the rock face. Ignis was very pleased with this and started getting her to scratch over and over again in quick succession, as these were the types of skills she would need in order to perfect fury swipes over time.

Ignis kept the egg with him the entire time, often holding it and even talking to the creature that was within as Eli had advised. At one stage he could've sworn the egg rocked slightly in his hands but then the moment was over and Ignis couldn't quite be sure if it was his imagination or not.

By the time Eli returned the sun was starting to set and Ignis put out a large helping of nutrient rich food for the two pokémon who needed no second invite and they ate hungrily. Even the always energetic Growlithe seemed tired after the workout that he had gotten and soon strayed over the Ignis and Eli who were sitting on the patio and placed his head on his trainer's lap and began to doze. Nidoran took full advantage of this opportunity to finish the last of Growlithe's food much to the delight of Eli.

"Does she ever stop eating?" he said incredulously.

"I told you," said Ignis brightly before turning to face Nidoran. "You deserve it, you did some really great work today," he said and the pokémon's eyes gleamed with pride before she returned her head to the bowl and continued to dig out the last morsels of food.

"I booked you in for a challenge match tomorrow against the second at midday," said Eli sipping his team. "I'd like to come along to see how you go if you don't mind?"

"Of course not, I'd love for you to be there," smiled Ignis.

Ignis woke up the next morning as nervous as he'd been in a long time. He picked at his breakfast while Eli laughed and reminisced about how nervous he had been before his first gym battle.

"Don't worry there'll be no one watching the match against the second. It's the televised gym match with thousands of spectators you've gotta be nervous about," he finished with a laugh.

"You're not helping," said Ignis though he couldn't help but smile at his uncle's good humour. He remembered so many weekends that he'd tuned in to watch the highlights of gym matches from around the Kanto circuit. He couldn't believe that today in a couple of days it might be him walking in to the famous greenhouse arena to take on Erika infront of thousands of fans. He'd always thought that making the gym challenges a spectator sport had been a brilliant idea. Great for budding trainers to learn by, great for the city's economy and just great to watch in general. But now, faced with it himself, he couldn't help wish it'd go back to the behind closed doors events that it had been years ago. Anyway he was getting ahead of himself. He still had a match to win before he thought about any of that but even so he couldn't stop his stomach from lurching.

Eli drove them into the city and it wasn't long before Ignis saw the massive Gloom shaped roof of the Celadon greenhouse gym. They parked in the gyms large car park, which was mostly empty, and walked the short distance together in through the automatic doors and up to the reception desk.

A tall young woman with short blonde hair was sitting at the receptionist desk and she looked up from her computer screen as Ignis and Eli approached.

"Can I help you?" she said brightly.

"Yes, my name is Ignis and I'm here for my challenge match," said Ignis gingerly.

"Ah yes of course, I have you here on the system," said the girl with a wide smile, typing some details into the computer. "Please place your pokédex on the slot to confirm your identity and number of badges" she continued. Ignis did as she said watching his face flash up on the computer screen. "I see this is potentially your first badge," said the girl positively beaming now. "We don't get too many rookies around these parts, usually they head to Viridian forest or the safari zone first. Are you from Celadon?"

"No miss but I've family here," said Ignis motioning to Eli who smiled.

"Very good, if you take a seat Lucinda will be with you shortly. The very best of luck in your match," said the girl and gave him another bright smile before turning to the next person in the line.

They took a seat and Eli went over the plan once last time.

"Remember now, she's not trying to beat you, she just wants to make sure your worthy of a match against Erika," said Eli encouragingly. "And remember, no matter what happens don't use ember or I'm sure Lucinda won't be long tipping Erika off to it and then you lose the element of surprise". Ignis nodded, unable to talk too much with the nerves he was feeling. Before his uncle could give any more advice a young woman wearing a bright pink tracksuit with the Celadon crest emblazoned on it emerged from a side room. She had dark purple hair and Ignis guessed she was in her early twenties.

"Ignis I presume?" she said looking from him back to her clipboard.

"That's me," said Ignis and the woman gave him a small smile.

"No badges yet, correct?" she said, not unkindly and Ignis nodded an affirmative. "Well if there's nothing else we can head into arena number two and have our match. If you are successful I will forward your name to Erika and your match will be scheduled for this coming Saturday.

Ignis followed the woman in through a side door to a large room where a small plain grass court that had been lined for pokémon matches. He took his place at the opposite end to Lucinda and Eli made his way over to a bench to watch.

A referee emerged from a dressing room and walked to the side of the court. She was dressed in the same tracksuit as Lucinda and held a flag in each hand, one green and one red, signifying Lucinda on the green side and Ignis on the red side.

"This will be a two on two battle, only the challenger may make substitutions. The match will be decided when both of one trainer's pokémon are unable to continue" she announced. "Trainers please select your first pokémon and hold their pokéball in your hand. Ignis did so. He knew that this was to stop one trainer having an advantage over the other at the start.

"Let the match…begin!" shouted the referee with a wave of both her flags and both trainers threw their pokéballs.

Nidoran emerged in a flash of white light and instantly started to glare at the rather large looking Oddish that Lucinda had summoned at the opposing end of the small field.

"Nidoran, tackle!" shouted Ignis and Nidoran burst into a fast run heading directly at the Oddish.

"Oddish poison powder attack!" came the reply from across the field and Oddish started waving it's long green leaves to and fro emitting an orange powder that wafted directly through the air towards Nidoran".

"Nidoran, adjust and come at it from the side!" shouted Ignis and Nidoran shifted quickly to the right before swirling back to the left and coming at the Oddish from a different angle exactly how they had practiced on their obstacle course the previous day"

The quick change in direction meant that the poison powder attack wafted harmlessly off while Nidoran closed in on the slow moving Oddish.

"Quick, poison powder again!" came the shout from across the field but too late as Nidoran slammed into the Oddish with brutal force hitting it horn first and sending it flying across the court.

Oddish regained its feet quite quickly but was clearly dazed from the full frontal blow. Nidoran was already nearly on it charging towards it with Ignis shouting for a scratch attack to finish it off.

"Sleep powder!" Lucinda roared from across the field and this time Nidoran was far too close to the grass pokémon when the attack started and ran straight through the side of the dust cloud that had started to form before clawing twice at the Oddish who withstood the first blow but was knocked to the ground by the ferocity of the second and a flash of red light signalled Lucinda recalling him.

"Good job Ignis, that Nidoran of yours is quite something. She may even be a match for my next pokémon…if she can stay awake," quipped Lucinda looking across at the poison pin pokémon who was shaking her head and blinking madly.

Ignis knew she was right. If he were to have any chance of finishing this match without using Growlithe he'd have to finish this next pokémon fast.

"Paras, you're up!" shouted Lucinda as a bright orange paras arrived with a flash of white light.

"Nidoran, tackle!" roared Ignis, wasting no time and Nidoran shook her head one more time and galloped off to meet her new opponent.

"Paras dodge and use scratch!" shouted Lucinda. The paras moved with pace that it didn't look like it had hopping out of the way of Nidoran's attack.

Ignis didn't bother confusing Nidoran with a dodge command. She was too close to dodge it and too tired to keep going. Her movements were visibly slowing and she appeared a little disorientated.

"Nidoran, poison sting!" roared Ignis and the pokémon jabbed at paras with her horn drawing a small wound just to the pokémon's side just as paras attacked with a ferocious scratch attack that drove Nidoran into the ground.

The referee eyed the small pokémon as Nidoran attempted to push herself up but with everything but her fighting spirit no longer functioning Ignis recalled her taking a moment to say a few words of praise to her pokéball.

"Back level again," said Lucinda smiling. This time it was Ignis's turn to smile.

"I'm not so sure about level, looks like Nidoran left her own parting gift," he said motioning to the wound in the paras's side where Nidoran's poisonous, barbed horn had injured the pokémon.

Ignis could see the poison was already taking effect; the paras seemed a lot weaker than it had moments before.

"Growlithe, I choose you," he shouted throwing the ball through the the air and catching it in one hand on the return as Growlithe sprang from the pokéball.

"Nidoran weakened him for you buddy but it can still hurt you so be careful," shouted Ignis and received one quick bark in reply.

"Stun spore!" Lucinda shouted from the field clearly now under the impression that it was she that was operating against the clock.

"Dodge Growlithe!" and Growlithe took off across the field. It didn't quite have agility mastered but it moved so fast when sprinting that it was still more than capable of running rings around the weakened paras and proceeded to do so. The paras shifted from side to side trying to keep up with Growlithe's fast movements but a combination of Nidoran's poison and Growlithe's speed meant it was unable to do so.

"Now, tackle!" roared Ignis when he saw Growlithe almost come behind the pokémon and in a flash Growlithe changed direction charging and clattering into the pokémon laying him out unconscious on the floor.

"Paras is unable to battle!" shouted the referee. "The winner is the challenger!".

Lucinda returned the paras and walked towards the centre of the field. Ignis mirrored her and they met in the centre, a delighted Growlithe jumping up and down on Ignis.

"That was impressive Ignis. That Growlithe of yours is certainly fast," she said looking down at his excited companion. "He'll grow to be a very strong pokémon someday. I don't know if you have what it takes to beat Erika but you have certainly earned the right to try. I will be submitting your name for Saturday's gym challenges. Please present yourself to the gym at eleven o' clock in the morning," she said extending her hand which Ignis shook.

"I'll do that," said Ignis. "Thanks very much".

He made his way to the sidelines to a beaming Eli who clasped him on the shoulder. "That was brilliant, couldn't have done better myself kid! The way you got one last poison sting in with Nidoran instead of trying to avoid the incoming attack was just great!"

"I still had to use Growlithe in the end," said Ignis, slightly disappointed even though he knew it would've been a big ask for Nidoran to take down both pokémon.

"This way is even better," said Eli grinning madly. This way they've actually seen Growlithe and the report will be that it was a young, if very fast, growlithe who didn't use any fire abilities".

"That's true I suppose," said Ignis a bit more brightly as the adrenaline slowly started to leave him and he calmed down. "Saturday match leaves us just two days to prepare," said Ignis.

"Yeah I would suggest a big training session tomorrow and then a rest day on Friday," said Eli as they walked towards the exit. "I know it can be hard for young trainers to think about rest days but they are important if you don't want your pokémon going into a battle tired and make no mistake you're going to be up against it. Erika will use a younger team against because of your badge count but she still has an ego on her so she won't be in any mood for letting some rookie show her up in front of the cameras".

Ignis agreed despite himself, he always quite disliked Erika when he watched her on the television. She had a habit of starting matches by saying 'this should be easy', which by now had become her catchphrase but to Ignis it seemed bigheaded and disrespectful.

"Don't get me wrong," said Eli seeing Ignis deep in thought. "I still think you can do it or else I would've encouraged you to wait longer," he finished smiling.

They walked back to the car and headed for home with Ignis deep in thought about Saturday's gym match and the start of his challenge to the Kanto circuit.

The sun shone brightly through a slit in the curtains signalling the morning of his gym match. Saturday had come slower than Ignis could have ever imagined. They had trained hard on the Thursday which made the day go by quite quickly but Friday had crept by at a snail's pace even though Eli had tried to keep him busy by providing him with books to study on pokémon he would likely meet in his journey. They had also spent a couple of hours researching what pokémon Erika tended to use against no badge trainers but it basically seemed unpredictable. In her last four matches against trainers of Ignis's level she had used seven different pokémon with a large, strong looking bulbasaur being the only pokémon to appear twice.

Ignis opened his eyes as the slit of light made his way towards his face. He had been awake with hours, unable to sleep properly the whole night with nerves. He got up and got dressed, going to the kitchen to find Eli already up.

"I'd a feeling you wouldn't be sleeping too much," said Eli grinning and pouring Ignis some coffee from the jug. "Nervous?"

Ignis barely managed a nod and sipped on his coffee. He'd done all he could in preparation and was happy with the game plan that he and Eli had devised but he hated this waiting.

Nonethelss, the time eventually, slowly, rolled around for them to leave and they headed once more towards the city limits. This time when they reached the large greenhouse gym the car park was a hive of activity with spectators arriving for the day's matches. All kinds of people seemed to be flocking towards the stands. Parents walked with their children, groups of teens walked together to the greenhouse stadium and even elderly pensioners made their way towards the stands.

Eli drove right up to the spaces outside the door marked 'Challengers only' and parked. Ignis felt a lot of eyes turn towards him as he got out of the car and a couple of people even shouted good luck to him as he walked towards the entrance.

The same receptionist who had greeted him a few days ago was on hand to greet him again. "Glad to see you made it," she said with her usual wide smile, ticking him off the list without even asking for his name. "You can make your way to holding room one," she said handing him a security pass. "Will you be joining him," she asked, looking at Eli.

"No, I'll watch from the stands," said Eli, as much to Ignis as to the receptionist. "You're more than ready to do this on your own, I've nothing but faith in you," he said clasping him on his back.

They said their goodbyes and Ignis headed to the holding room, which was located two floors below the ground level where he found Lucinda waiting for him.

"Well hello again Ignis, I have a copy of today's programme for you," she said handing him a leaflet with match times printed on it. "As you can see the running order is done on number of badges. There will be four matches in total today and you'll be battling first".

"I guess I'm the opening act," said Ignis with a nervous laugh.

"Think of it that way if you like but it's probably a better way if your feeling nervous, less waiting and the crowds wont be as big or as expectant," she said. "The match should be starting in about fifteen minutes. When this light turn green," she said motioning to a light on the wall, "stand into the podium which will rise into the main arena once it detects your weight". "The podium is equipped with a mic so that you can talk to Erika and your pokémon over the noise. Good luck Ignis," she said and turned to leave.

Ignis sat there for a moment trying to take in everything she had said. He wasn't used to being the centre of attention and needing a microphone to be able to be heard over the sound of the crowd sent a fresh wave of butterfrees into his stomach. He let out both his pokémon and addressed them both with as much confidence as he could muster.

"This is our first match against a gym leader," Ignis started. "You'll be up first Nidoran, Erika is a very good trainer and her pokémon will be very tough opponents," he continued. Nidoran looked decidedly unimpressed, apparently she feared no pokémon and at that moment Ignis wished he had half her confidence. He smiled for the first time all morning and rubbed the small pokémon. "You just do what you did the other day and we'll be fine," he smiled.

"Growlithe, we've practiced this over and over but remember, don't use any type of fire attack until I expressly call for it and when I do put everything you have into the first attack. We'll only get one shot at it," he said. The puppy pokémon seemed strangely calm and focused as if he could understand the seriousness of the situation and he gave Ignis one small lick on his hand to show he understood.

They sat in silence for several minutes with Ignis patting and rubbing both his companions, as much to comfort himself as to keep them calm. After a small while a loud buzz sounded through the holding room, shattering the silence and the green light on the wall came on. "Well here we go guys," Ignis said, recalling his two pokémon and standing on the platform. The platform gave a loud beep and after a second started to climb steadily towards the ceiling, which opened as he rose to meet it and all Ignis could hear was the rising volume level from the stadium above as the platform lifted him past the ceiling and into the gigantic stadium above.

The wall of noise erupted as he entered into the stadium and saw that on the other side Erika had emerged on her own platform. She was tall and pretty with shoulder-length dark blue hair and she waved and smiled to the crowd. The field was huge, at least double the size of the one he had faced Lucinda on. The surface was mostly grass but it had a couple of bushes and areas of foliage scattered around it, and even one or two areas where wild flowers were growing giving the field pops of colour. It had never looked this big when he had watched it on television thought Ignis as he glanced around at the stadium that circled the field. He saw that they were slightly over half full and noticed that many people were still milling into their seats from the various entranceways, holding popcorn and soft drinks and various signs and banners. He tried looking for Eli but there were just too many people to make out where he was.

Before Ignis could look any further the commentator's voice boomed out across the stadium. "And the first match of our schedule today will feature first-time challenger Ignis of Cinnabar!" which drew some cheers and polite applause from the crowd. Ignis gave a nervous wave to the watching spectators.

"Standing between him and the coveted rainbow badge is the gym leader of the Celadon City gym… Erika!" continued the commentator and this time the crowd went wild, cheering and chanting Erika's name and he felt his stomach turning in knots.

"Welcome to my gym Ignis," came Erika's voice from across the field. "It's good of you to come here today but I'm afraid you'll be leaving the way that you arrived… badgeless," which seemed to draw a fresh wave of cheers and laughs from the crowd. Ignis didn't bother to reply, smack-talk was basically mandatory now that the matches were being televised but he had enough to be concentrating on without engaging in it.

A referee walked to the side of the field carrying two flags and wearing a microphone.

"This will be a two on two battle. Only the challenger may make substitutions. Trainers, please select your first pokémon and hold the pokéball in your hand".

Ignis picked Nidoran's ball from his belt and held it in his outstretched hand and he saw Erika do the same.

"Begin!" came the shout from the referee and the crowd roared their approval.

Ignis threw Nidoran's pokéball and the poison pin pokémon jumped out of it glaring up at Erika with her teeth bared.

Erika responded by throwing her pokéball. "This should be easy," she quipped as the ball flew through the air and opened to reveal a large yellow pokémon that Ignis recognized as a weepinbell. The crowd roared their approval at the use of her now famous catchphrase and the noise grew and grew within the stadium.

"Weepinbell, acid!" said Erika calmly and the pokémon started to spit large blasts of purple acid at Nidoran who was already running and dodging.

"Oh, she's fast!" quipped Erika, he voice rising clearly above the din of the crowd, "but can she outrun a razor leaf!" she shouted as Weepinbell blasted four razor leaves in the direction of Nidoran. Nidoran managed to dodge the first three but the fourth scraped along the pokémon's side opening up a long gash and the audience gasped collectively.

Even so Nidoran didn't miss a step, she continued ploughing towards the grass pokémon as if she had not felt the large cut which was now starting to bleed showing her characteristic determination. This unflinching drive seemed to catch both Erika and her weepinbell by surprise and neither made a move for a split second.

"Poison sting!" shouted Ignis as Nidoran closed the gap between the two to basically nothing and Nidoran rammed her horn into the underside of the large pokémon shoving it several yards down the field.

"Quickly tackle before it can recover!" shouted Ignis into his microphone but Erika was already calling for vine whip and two large vines burst out of the weepinbell and headed towards the charging pokémon.

"Counter with bite!" roared Ignis and the poison pokémon dodged one vine and bit it clean in half as it passed only for the second to lash it across the back and Nidoran was driven into the grass.

The poison pokémon rose gingerly from the ground but too slow as a burst of more razor leaves caught her one after another and she slumped to the ground unconscious.

"Nidoran is unable to battle! Weepinbell is the winner," shouted the referee and the crowd roared their approval. Ignis felt the knot in his stomach tighten as he recalled his companion and threw Growlithe's pokéball onto the field.

The pokémon emerged looking determined and eyed up the weepinbell on the other side of the field.

"Nice puppy," came Erika's voice from across the field. "This should be easy" and Ignis felt his hands clench into fist".

"Tackle Growlithe, show her your speed!" and Growlithe took off like a Ponyta drawing more than one or two cheers and gasps from the crowd.

Erika roared for vine whips but Growlithe dodged them like they were coming at him in slow motion and connected solidly with the grass pokémon which flew back clearly weakened and already sporting the earlier wound from Nidoran. Nonetheless it turned to face Growlithe once more withgrim determination.

"Bite Growlithe!" shouted Ignis sensing his chance just as Erika shouted for weepinbell to use acid. Growlithe whirled towards the pokémon and avoided the first shot of acid but was caught on the flank by the second which steamed as it hit his fur. Growlithe let out a small whimper but had closed in enough ground to clamp his jaws around weepinbell and he shook the grass pokémon from side to side with a ferocity that Ignis didn't know he had. He let go and the weepinbell was flung to the side and landed in a patch of foliage, clearly unconscious. This time it was Growlithe and Ignis that earned a large cheer from the crowd.

"Not so easy apparently," said Ignis before he could catch himself and the crowd roared their approval. So much for no smack talk he thought to himself with a wry grin.

Erika looked liked she'd been smacked in the face by his comment and she enlarged her second pokéball tossing it onto the field.

"Ivysaur, lets put some manners on this youngster!" shouted Erika.

"Saaaur!" screamed the Ivysaur announcing its arrival. The ivysaur was quite small for it's breed and Ignis just about had time to muse that this may be the bulbasaur they had researched that had evolved when Erika started barking orders and once more razor leaves shout towards Growlithe.

"Dodge Growlithe and get in close!" roared Ignis in response. Growlithe danced around the first few leaves but the burn to his flank was clearly effecting him and he didn't move with the same grace and fluidity that he had earlier. He howled when two of the razor leaves glanced off the same side opening small wounds that started to bleed but he still ran determinedly at the ivysaur tackling into it with great force. The ivysaur slid back a couple of yards rattled by the blow but still on its feet.

"Catch him Ivysaur!" roared Erika and her ivysaur roared an affirmative emitting two vines that moved far quicker than the weepinbell's had. The two lashed around Growlithe's body much to crowd's delight.

"Now reel him in!" shouted Erika and the Ivysaur began to pull Growlithe in closer. Growlithe dug his paws into the grass and tried to resist but the other pokémon was simply much bigger and stronger and inch by inch Growlithe came closer and closer until it was only a few feet from Ivysaur lashed firmly in place by strong vines.

"Let's show him our solar beam I think," said Erika. Ignis gasped, a solar beam at this range could potentially be fatal, he must've really pissed Erika off.

"Of course you could always forfeit," said Erika in a sickly sweet voice, a large smile across her face as ivysaur started to gather particles of light charging the solar beam.

This time it was Ignis's turn to smile and he said one word clearly but calmly into the mic.

"Ember".

He watched the smile slip right off Erika's face and turn to shock as Growlithe opened his maw and blew the most powerful ember attack Ignis had ever seen him do right at the ivysaur, hitting it at point blank range, turning the vines to ash and blowing the pokémon backwards head over heels until it came to a stop and slumped motionless, steam rising off a plethora of burns.

"Ivysaur is unable to battle, the match goes to Growlithe and the challenger Ignis!" shouted the referee.

The crowd seemed stunned into silence for a split second before it erupted into applause and cheers. The commentator was roaring something about a last second turnaround but Ignis was too dazed by what had just happened to hear it. He was already halfway down the ladder attached to the podium. He jumped the last few rungs and ran towards Growlithe who was hobbling weakly towards him, fur still slightly smouldering where the acid had hit him.

"You were great buddy!" shouted Ignis wrapping his arms around his companion being careful not to touch any wounds. "We'll get you looked after real soon," he said looking over the burn and the cuts but Growlithe just barked affectionately licking his face.

A shadow came over them and Ignis looked up to see Erika standing beside them looking down with a stern look.

"I have never," she started. "In all my days, seen a Growlithe that young use ember, I didn't see it coming for a second," she said looking down at the pair. "That was quite something," she said with the vaguest hint of a smile.

By then a trainer dressed in the gym's pink tracksuit and carrying a small wooden box and a hand-held microphone approached them and opened the box offering it to Erika. Erika placed her hand inside it and drew out a multi-coloured badge. She took the microphone from the trainer and said in a very formal voice.

"Ignis of Cinnabar, in acknowledgement of your victory here today I present you with the Rainbow badge," and she handed it to Ignis who took it, still not quite believing that what was happening was real. The noise in the crowd reached peak level and Ignis became aware of a television crew who had entered the field and were filming the encounter close up. He smiled as he looked over the cameraman's shoulder and saw Eli in the front row, on his feet and clapping wildly who quickly returned his smile offering a big thumbs-up looking positively giddy.

He looked down at the multi-coloured official league badge in his hand. This was going to take some time to sink in.


End file.
